US Patent Issued to The Swatch Group Research and Development on Aug. 26 for "Timepiece comprising an external element provided with a zirconia portion" (Swiss Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,399,463, issued on Aug. 26, was assigned to The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd (Marin, Switzerland).

"Timepiece comprising an external element provided with a zirconia portion" was invented by Michel Willemin (Preles, Switzerland), Loic Curchod (Lausanne, Switzerland), Pierpasquale Tortora (Neuchatel, Switzerland), Simon Springer (Berne, Switzerland) and Cedric Faure (Cortaillod, Switzerland).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided is a timepiece including, in addition to a crystal, the following external elements: a back (2), a middle part (1), a dial (3), and two bracelet strands (30), at least one of these external elements ...