Appeal No. 1999-0218
Application 08/691,889
been obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art at the time the invention was made
to adapt Beguin to include audio
presentation of time data as this is well
known in the art and to include a digital
display of "accurate" time. To present the
time digitally is known in the art and to
present this digital time in words rather
than numbers would clearly be obvious. It
should be note[d] that what the time is
called [']about 1 o'clock' almost 1 etc.
[sic] cannot be used to define over the
art. To allow for a selection of which is
desired is clearly obvious. In the instant
case, the analog shows the approximate
[time] and the digital shows the exact
[time]. To change to all digital and
display the approximate [time] would be
obvious. [Answer at 4.]
This reasoning is unpersuasive for a number of reasons.
Modifying Beguin's watch by adding a visible digital display
and/or an audible time indication yields a watch whose face
still includes hand 7 and indicators 21 and 22 and thus fails
to satisfy elements A of claims 10 and 19, which like element
A of claim 1 require a "timepiece face without a minute
indicator."
Also, because a digital display presumably would require a
stem for setting the time, using a digital display to replace
or supplement Beguin's hand 7 and indicators 21 and 22 would
destroy one of the essential features of Beguin's watch, which
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