US20020092781A1

US20020092781A1 - Free sided automatic watch display holder

Info

Publication number: US20020092781A1
Application number: US09/738,510
Authority: US
Inventors: Kinsen Au; Kin Chiu
Original assignee: Nationalpak Ltd
Current assignee: Nationalpak Ltd
Priority date: 2000-12-18
Filing date: 2000-12-18
Publication date: 2002-07-18

Abstract

A free sided automatic watch display holder includes an upper holder, a lower holder, and an extendable supporting frame rigidly supported between the upper holder and the lower holder wherein the supporting frame includes an upper support member transversely extended from an interior surface of the upper holder, a lower support member transversely extended from an interior surface of the lower holder, and a movable operating frame extended between the upper support member and the lower support member including a base and a slider arm upwardly and slidably extended therefrom in such manner the watch display holder is adapted to adjustably increase a distance between the upper holder and the lower holder, so as to fittedly mount all sizes of watch around the watch display holder.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to watch display holders, and more particularly to a free side automatic watch display holder that is capable of holding watches of various sizes and different types of watchband.

2. Description of Related Arts

The market for watches is a highly competitive and saturated market. For the well-known brand name watch, the name sells the watch. However, for lesser brands, the marketing, the advertising, and the display of these watches are sometimes more integral to the sale of the watch than the actual watch itself.

Watches come in all sizes and varieties, such as men's watches, ladies's watches, and children's watches. Moreover, watchbands may be thin or thick, wide or narrow. The length of the watchbands varies with the size of the wrist it is designed to surround. The watchband may be chain-type and made of metal, or belt-type and made of leather, simulated leather or other cloth type material.

Presently, since watches come in various sizes and shaped, in order to display the watches, or to keep them in an orderly condition at home, watches are often fitted in a clasped state around a watchband-supporting frame which is affixed to the base of a stand, or simply fitted around an independent watchband-supporting frame. The watch is clasped, and then slid onto the watchband-supporting frame in order to keep the watch sung against the watchband-supporting frame, and to keep it from falling off of the stand. The watchband-supporting frame is usually simply a “C” or “O” shaped frame.

These simple “C” or “O” shaped watchband-supporting frames come in different sizes to fit the variety of watches available in the marketplace. Practically, a man's watch has a bigger watchband than a woman's watch or a child's watch. Therefore, the watchband-supporting frame for man's watch must be shaped and size bigger accordingly so that when clasped, the man's watch can fit snugly around the watchband-supporting frame. Similarly, the watchband-supporting frame for a child's watch has a smaller size to accommodate the smaller watchband thereof.

Subsequently, great cost must be involved in the purchase of various kinds of watch holders having different sizes because the watch manufacturer cannot find a standardized watch holder or watchband-supporting frame to fit the great variety of watches.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

A main object of the present invention is to provide a free sided automatic watch display holder for the display and storage of watches, allowing one universal watch holder to be used for a variety of watches, vary in size and/or composition of the watchband.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a free sided automatic watch display holder which does not employ complicate structure and has minimized components, so as to minimize the manufacturing cast and assembly labor.

Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a free sided automatic watch display holder, comprising:

an upper holder providing an arc shaped upper supporting surface;

a lower holder also providing an arc shaped lower supporting surface; and

an extendable supporting frame rigidly supported between the upper holder and the lower holder wherein the supporting frame is adapted for vertically extending in such a slidably movable manner, so as to adjustably increase a distance between the upper holder and the lower holder;

wherein the supporting frame comprises an upper support member transversely extended from an interior surface of the upper holder, a lower support member transversely extended from an interior surface of the lower holder, and a movable operating frame extended between the upper support member and the lower support member comprising a base and a slider arm upwardly extended therefrom in such a slidably movable manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a free sided automatic watch display holder according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0016]
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the free sided automatic watch display holder in an open position according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0017]
FIG. 3 is a side view of the free sided automatic watch display holder according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0018]
FIG. 4 is a side view of the free sided automatic watch display holder in an open position according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0019]
FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the free sided automatic watch display holder according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3 of the drawings, a free sided automatic watch display holder according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated, wherein the free sided automatic watch display holder is adapted for holding watches of various sizes and different types of watchband. [0021]
The free sided automatic watch display holder comprises an [0022] upper holder 10, a lower holder 20, and an extendable supporting frame 30 slidably supported between the upper holder 10 and lower holder 20, as shown in FIG. 5.
The [0023] upper holder 10 providing an arc shaped upper supporting surface 11 and the lower holder 20 also providing an arc shaped lower supporting surface 21. The upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20 are adapted to slidably connect each other to form as a C-shaped body, such as a conventional C-shaped watch holder, in a closed position, as shown in FIG. 3, in such a manner that the watch display holder is designed to hold the watch in a circular position.
The [0024] upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20 are made of semi-rigid and flattened material and a soft fabric material is preferably provided on the upper supporting surface 11 of the upper holder 10 and the lower supporting surface 21 of the lower holder 20 respectively, so as to enhance the aesthetic appearance of the watch display holder and well protect the watch held thereon.
Thus, the [0025] upper holder 10 and lower holder 20 have a predetermined width which must be at least as wide as the width of the watchband of the watch in order to allow adequate support for the watchband when the watch is placed around the watch display holder.
The supporting [0026] frame 30 is rigidly supported between the upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20 wherein the supporting frame 30 is adapted for vertically extending in such a slidably movable manner, so as to adjustably increase a distance between the upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20. Preferably, the supporting frame 30 is made of durable material such as plastic which is in low cost and easy to manufacture in order to support the watch rigidly.
The supporting [0027] frame 30 comprises an upper support member 31 transversely extended from in interior surface of the upper holder 10, a lower support member 31 transversely extended from an interior surface of the lower holder 20, and a movable operating frame 33 extended between the upper support member 31 and the lower support member 32 comprising a base 331 and at least a slider arm 332 having rectangular cross section upwardly extended therefrom in such a slidably movable manner.
The upper supporting [0028] member 31 has two ends securely affixed to the interior surface of the upper holder 10 for transversely biasing against the arc-shaped upper holder 10. The lower supporting member 32 also has two ends securely affixed to the interior surface of the lower holder 20 for transversely biasing against the arc-shaped lower holder 20.
According to the preferred embodiment, the [0029] base 331 of the movable operating frame 33 is perpendicularly affixed on the lower supporting member 32. The base 331 has a pair of parallel slider slots 3311 vertically formed on top of the base 331 wherein two slider arms 332 each having a predetermined length are fittedly received in the slider slots 3311 respectively in a slidably movable manner such that the slider arms 332 are adapted to slide vertically along the slider slots 3311 respectively. A top end of each slider arm 332 is perpendicularly affixed to the upper supporting member 31 such that when the upper holder 10 is pull upwardly, the slider arms 332 are arranged to slide upwardly along the slider slots 3311, so as to adjust the distance between the upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4.
Due to a mutual frictional force exerted on contact surfaces between the [0030] slider arms 332 and the base 331, the upper holder 10 is frictionally held in position. So, the user simply adjusts the height of the watch display holder in order to fit the various sizes of the watch.
In order maintain the arc shape of the [0031] upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20, the watch display holder further comprises an upper holding frame 12 affixed to the upper holder 10 and a lower holding frame 22 affixed to the lower holder 20. The upper holding frame 12 has two ends integrally extended to two end portions 101 of the upper holder 10 and the lower holding frame 22 also has two ends integrally extended to two portions 201 of the lower holder 20 such that the upper holding frame 12 and the lower holding frame 22 will respectively keep the upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20 in such an arc shape manner.
Practically, all size of watches can be fittedly mounted on the watch display holder of the present invention in the circular manner for displaying and storing purpose. For a smaller size woman's or child's watch, the [0032] slider arms 332 are slidably moved downward in order to reduce the distance between the upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20 since the circumference of such watch is relatively small. For a larger size man's watch which has a larger circumference, the slider arms 332 are adapted for upwardly sliding along the slider slots 3311 of the base 331 so as to increase the distance between the upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20.
In order to use the watch display holder, the user simply minimizes the height of the watch display holder, which compresses the [0033] upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20 together, and place the watch display holder to the inner circumference of the watch. Then, the user may pull the upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20 away from each other so as to lengthen the height of the watch display holder such that the watch will be fittedly mounted around the watch display holder in a circular manner.
For the user merely detaches the watch from the watch display holder, simply push the [0034] upper holder 10 and the lower holder 20 together, so as to reduce the length of the watch display holder, the watch will easily be departed therefrom.
Besides, it is worth to mention that all kinds of watch including the belt-type and the metal link-type watch can be mounted on the watch display holder in the circular manner. Moreover, the present invention allows a watch manufacturer to use a standardized, universal watch display holder for any size of watch so as to highly reduce the manufacturing cost of the watch holder and increase the convenience and utility of the watch display holder. [0035]

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A free sided automatic watch display holder, comprising:

an upper holder providing an arc shaped upper supporting surface;

a lower holder providing an arc shaped lower supporting surface; and

an extendable supporting frame rigidly supported between said upper holder and said lower holder wherein the supporting frame is adapted for vertically extending in such a slidably movable manner, so as to adjustably increase a distance between said upper holder and said lower holder;

wherein said supporting frame comprises an upper support member extended from an interior surface of said upper holder, a lower support member extended from an interior surface of said lower holder, and a movable operating frame extended between said upper support member and said lower support member comprising a base and at least a slider arm upwardly extended therefrom in such a slidably movable manner.

2. A free sided automatic watch display holder, as recited in claim 1, wherein said base of said movable operating frame has at least a slider slot vertically formed on top of said base wherein said slider arm having a predetermined length is fittedly received in said slider slot respectively in a slidably movable manner.

3. A free sided automatic watch display holder, as recited in claim 1, wherein said upper supporting member has two ends securely affixed to said interior surface of said upper holder for transversely biasing against said arc-shaped upper holder and said lower supporting member also has two ends securely affixed to said interior surface of said lower holder for transversely biasing against said arc-shaped lower holder.

4. A free sided automatic watch display holder, as recited in claim 2, wherein said upper supporting member has two ends securely affixed to said interior surface of said upper holder for transversely biasing against said arc-shaped upper holder and said lower supporting member also has two ends securely affixed to said interior surface of said lower holder for transversely biasing against said arc-shaped lower holder.

5. A free sided automatic watch display holder, as recited in claim 1, further comprising an upper holding frame affixed to said upper holder and a lower holding frame affixed to said lower holder wherein said upper holding frame has two ends integrally extended to two end portions of said upper holder and said lower holding frame also has two ends integrally extended to two portions of said lower holder.

6. A free sided automatic watch display holder, as recited in claim 2, further comprising an upper holding frame affixed to said upper holder and a lower holding frame affixed to said lower holder wherein said upper holding frame has two ends integrally extended to two end portions of said upper holder and said lower holding frame also has two ends integrally extended to two portions of said lower holder.

7. A free sided automatic watch display holder, as recited in claim 3, further comprising an upper holding frame affixed to said upper holder and a lower holding frame affixed to said lower holder wherein said upper holding frame has two ends integrally extended to two end portions of said upper holder and said lower holding frame also has two ends integrally extended to two portions of said lower holder.

8. A free sided automatic watch display holder, as recited in claim 4, further comprising an upper holding frame affixed to said upper holder and a lower holding frame affixed to said lower holder wherein said upper holding frame has two ends integrally extended to two end portions of said upper holder and said lower holding frame also has two ends integrally extended to two portions of said lower holder.