Electronic timepiece

Claim 2

An electronic timepiece comprising: a main component of said timepiece, at least one electric cell for said main component; an optional component, at least one electric cell for said optional component; a connecting system having a switching element for selectively connecting in parallel said cells for said main and optional components to each other, means for detecting the difference in the terminal voltage between said cells and means for controlling said switching element in accordance with the signal from said difference detecting means.

Claim 3

An electronic timepiece according to claim 1 wherein each of said difference detecting means is a differential amplifier, of which an output signal thereof is used for controlling said switching element.

Claim 4

An electronic timepiece according to claim 1 which further comprises means for controlling at least one of said difference detecting means to generate the output signal intermittently by using the timing signal prepared in accordance with the signal from said main component and a memory device for storing said signal from said difference detecting means.

Claim 5

An electronic timepiece according to claim 1 wherein each switching element is a field-effect transistor.

Claim 6

An electronic timepiece having time keeping means, and including a plurality of battery cells and connection means for connecting the battery cells to form current paths; wherein the electronic timepiece further comprises: means for detecting the state of the time keeping means; output means for producing a signal indicative of the state of said time keeping means; at least one optional auxiliary component associated with said timepiece; a plurality of circuit paths for connecting said auxiliary optional component to said battery cells, and for connecting said time keeping means to said battery cells; selection means for selecting the circuit path to said auxiliary optional component from said battery cells, according to the state of the time keeping means, as indicated by the signal from the detecting means on the ouput means; and connecting means for connecting the circuit path selected by the selecting means.

Claim 7

An electronic timepiece having time keeping means, and including a plurality of battery cells and connection means for connecting the battery cells to form current paths; wherein the electronic timepiece further comprises: means for detecting the state of the time keeping means; output means for producing a signal indicative of the state of said time keeping means; at least one optional auxiliary component associated with said timepiece; a plurality of circuit paths for connecting said auxiliary optional component to said battery cells, and for connecting said time keeping means to said battery cells; selection means for selecting the circuit path to said auxiliary optional component from said battery cells, according to the state of the time keeping means, as indicated by the signal from the detecting means on the ouput means; and connecting means for connecting the circuit path selected by the selecting means.

Claim 8

The electronic timepiece of claim 5, wherein the connecting means is a diode.

Claim 9

The electronic timepiece of claim 5, wherein the selecting means is a field effect transistor.

Claim 10

The electronic timepiece of claim 5, wherein the connecting means includes: means for establishing a parallel connection between the battery cells; and means for exteriorly effecting said parallel connection with an exterior operating member.

Claim 11

The electronic timepiece of claim 5, wherein the interior state of the timepiece is monitored intermittently by the detecting means.

Claim 12

The electronic timepiece of claim 5, wherein the means for detecting the state and the means for selecting the circuit paths has hysteresis input and output characteristics.

Claim 13

The electronic timepiece, according to claim 5, wherein the optional auxiliary components are selected from a group including: a calculator: an alarm device; a high accuracy timepiece and signal generator; an automatic time correcting device; a paging device; a data bank device; and a schedule timer device.