Glycine Watch Company Patents

This is Glycine's first patent, just after 3 years of its creation. It may look primitive but considering that watchmakers used fine leather belts in their machinery, like with their lathe, it would wear and tear with time. This clasp would enable the user to cut/add, repair the leather belts without interrupting its function. 

Specializing in small size movements obviously Glycine was not afraid trying new configurations within the movement. Baguette shaped movements have less space than say round shaped movements and existing ebauches had room to improve, that's what Glycine did and improved setting mechanisms within these movements.

Jump hour watches were getting popular and Glycine with its baguette shaped movement integrated the jump hour, minute and seconds discs more conveniently onto baguette surface than the classic round movements. The discs would rotate to show change in time and were displayed through windows.

This is Eugene Meylan's invention. The automatic module that can be mounted on any 8,75 lignes manual winding movement and turn them into self-winding mechanism. It's a set of 2 patents CH149137 and 138. He creates a new company to manage his new manufacture 'Automatic EMSA'  and transfers the patents there. During manufacture he makes improvements and applies for further patents. This module has altogether 6 patent registers: CH149137, CH149138, CH157572, CH157573, CH160491. Very early Automatic EMSA watch examples have Pat. Appl. for numbers which are 5 digits and don't correspond to any priority or patent number and have wrongly been evaluated as marketing gimmick. In reality they are not. In Swiss chronicles the corresponding numbers 77878 and 77588 are published as applied for in 9 Jun 1931. 

This folding lever style crown was specially designed for Automatic EMSA just to set the time, rather than winding the watch. The timepiece was self-winding anyway. You can see an example in models page of Glycine with this folding lever crown, very elegant indeed.

The Airman patent, 24 hour rotating bezel and the locking crown has been patented with this register. Uncontested, this is the most important invention Glycine has made. 

The famous Glycine Airman and Combat hacking mechanisms patent. Even though it's only Glycine having used this weird and authentic hacking mechanism, it is invented by Georges Godat.  He seems to be not related with Glycine Watch Company and has an earlier patent for seconds stopping mechanism in 1947. Obviously Glycine bought the rights of the patent and used it in its timepieces. Godat fine tunes his first patent with a second patent on Dec '55  ( CH339132 ).

Klingenberg while working at Glycine has developed this technique of closing the watch-cases in a vacuumed tube so that no air would be left inside the watch-case. This way the watch was air+water+condensation proof. It would need less servicing and lubricants would not dry out quick. Time proved him right, Vacuum watches are still around and need minimum attention and are incredibly accurate.

Glycine has invented a way to regulate the watches movement through the crown, without opening the watchcase. This is the last patent by Glycine, there are no more inventions from 1973 and onward.