Electronic time keeping system

Claim 1

An electronic watch including a timekeeping circuit supplied from a voltage source of miniature batteries comprising: (a) electro-optical display devices for displaying hours, minutes and seconds, said display devices, said timekeeping circuit and said battery voltage source being contained within a watch case with said display device being visible from without for reading the displayed time; (b) a frequency source providing clocking signals, said timekeeping circuit being coupled to said frequency source and including a plurality of counter circuits responsive to said frequency source for producing time indicative output signals and decode circuits coupled to said counter circuits for converting said time indicative output signals to display coded format; (c) a constant current regulator having an input and an outut, said regulator being connected at its input to said battery voltage source; (d) a plurality of bipolar transistor current sources connected in common to the output of said regulator, said counters and said decode circuits being implemented by current driven bipolar transistor integrated DC coupled flip flops and logic elements without load resistors or charge storage devices, said bipolar transistor current sources being coupled to said flip flop and logic elements for supplying current individually to respective ones of the transistors of said flip flop and logic elements; and (e) driver circuits coupled to said battery voltage source and coupled between said decode circuits and said electro-optical display devices for impinging required current and voltage levels on said display elements to effect a visible display of time thereon.