Electronic timepiece and method for controlling display operation of electronic timepiece

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10001757-B2
Application number	US-201615087359-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2016
Priority date	Sep 10, 2013
Publication date	Jun 19, 2018
Grant date	Jun 19, 2018

Abstract

An electronic timepiece includes a display section, a display control section, a reception section, a clock section, a timing section, a leap second acquisition section, a time correction section that corrects internal time information by using time information acquired by the timing section, and a leap second correction section that corrects the internal time information by using leap second information acquired by the leap second acquisition section. In a case where the operation of the timing section is followed by the operation of the leap second acquisition section, the time correction section corrects the internal time information by using the time information acquired by the timing section, and the display control section causes the display section to display, before the leap second acquisition section acquires the leap second information, time based on the internal time information corrected by the time correction section.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic timepiece comprising:
a display;
a receiver configured to receive a satellite signal containing time information and leap second information;
a clock section configured to clock internal time information; and
a controller configured to correct the internal time information by using the received time information and the received leap second information, and to cause the display to display time based on the corrected internal time information;
wherein in a case where the receiver receives the leap second information after receiving the time information, the controller uses the received time information to correct the internal time information and causes the display to display time based on the corrected internal time information before the receiver receives the leap second information.

2. The electronic timepiece according to claim 1 ,
wherein in a case where a leap second reception condition is satisfied, the receiver receives the leap second information after receiving the time information.

3. The electronic timepiece according to claim 2 ,
wherein the leap second reception condition is that the electronic timepiece stores no leap second information.

4. The electronic timepiece according to claim 2 ,
wherein the leap second reception condition is that a current time falls within a predefined leap second reception period and no previous leap second information reception operation has been successful within the predefined leap second reception period.

5. The electronic timepiece according to claim 1 ,
wherein in the case where the receiver receives the leap second information after receiving the time information, the controller causes the display to further display, before the receiver receives the leap second information, leap second standby information indicating that the timepiece is on standby to receive the leap second information.

6. The electronic timepiece according to claim 5 ,
wherein the leap second standby information is includes time period remaining before the receiver starts receiving the leap second information from the satellite signal.

7. The electronic timepiece according to claim 5 , wherein:
the display section has a second hand, a minute hand, an hour hand, and a dial; and
in the case where the receiver receives the leap second information after receiving the time information, the controller uses the minute hand and the hour hand to display time based on the corrected internal time information and uses the second hand to display the leap second standby information.

8. The electronic timepiece according to claim 1 ,
wherein in the case where the receiver receives the leap second information after receiving the time information, the controller causes the display to further display, before the receiver receives the leap second information, a result of a performed time information reception operation that extracts time information from the satellite signal.

9. The electronic timepiece according to claim 1 ,
wherein when the controller receives a reception result display instruction, the controller causes the display to display no leap second information reception result but to display a result of the time information reception.

10. The electronic timepiece according to claim 1 ,
wherein in a case where an automatic reception start condition is satisfied, the controller controls the receiver to start a reception process that receives the satellite signal.

11. The electronic timepiece according to claim 10 ,
wherein the automatic reception start condition is that the displayed time reaches a fixed reception time.

12. The electronic timepiece according to claim 10 , further comprising:
a solar panel;
wherein the automatic reception start condition is that a power level of an electric power generated by the solar panel reaches a level not lower than a preset value.

13. An electronic apparatus comprising:
a display;
a receiver configured to receive a satellite signal containing time information and leap second information;
a clock section configured to clock internal time information;
a controller configured to instruct the receiver as to when to start receiving the satellite signal, and to correct the internal time information by using the received time information and the received leap second information;
wherein in a case where the receiver recovers the time information from the satellite signals before recovering the leap second information from the satellite signal, the controller corrects the internal time information by using the recovered time information and causes the display to display time based on the corrected internal time information before the receiver recovers the leap second information from the satellite signal.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Akiyama Toshikazu

Classifications

• G04R20/06

  Decoding time data; Circuits therefor · CPC title

• G04G19/00

  Electric power supply circuits specially adapted for use in electronic time-pieces · CPC title

• G04B19/04

  Hands; Discs with a single mark or the like {(moving indicating arrangements which have scales or numbers with stationary hands or reading means G04B19/20; optical projection of the position of the hands G04B19/34)} · CPC title

• G04R20/04 Primary

  Tuning or receiving; Circuits therefor · CPC title