FIELD OF INVENTION:
[001) The present invention relates to the field of lacquering on watch dial. The present invention in particular relates to a protective ring to cover the feet during lacquering.
> DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART:
[002] Conventional dials consist of a plastic film or a sheet metal as a base body, which was provided by screen printing with the desired scale lines and / or numerals and / or markings. The screen printing process has various limitations on the design of such dials.
) [003] Printing non-planar dials is completely excluded. Furthermore, the printability is highly dependent on the surface roughness. An excessive roughness leads to blurred contours and to a. Spot formation. A disadvantage of the screen printing method is that the production of the printing screen represents a significant cost factor, so that changes of the dial are consuming.
! [004] Reference may be made to the following:
[005] Publication No. US3724202 relates to a ring member possessing decorative or functional markings for an article, especially for use in a watch, wherein there is provided a metallic ring member body equipped with at least one substantially ring-shaped groove at its base portion which is not exposed to the observer of the I article.
[006] Publication No. WO03025681 relates to a method for the production of a dial, wherein a base body (1) is provided with at least one lacquered layer (6,7), said lacquered layer (6,7) being subsequently partially removed by means of a laser beam in order to produce scale graduation marks and/or figures (4) and/or markings. The dial further has a ring portion 5 is covered by two superposed layers of paint 6. 7 The outer coating layer 6 is, for example opaque, while the lower resist layer 7 is transparent, but has a desired color.

[007] Publication No. CH650635 relates to the decoration on the watch (clock) glass (1) is applied by covering the entire underside with a decorative layer of metal or metal oxide, for example black chromium, covering the parts which are to remain, the two rings (8 and 9), with cover lacquer and etching away the uncovered parts of the decorative layer.
[008] Publication No. US2019078209 relates to a method for protecting a complex watch component against gaseous environment, characterized in that the entire surface of the complex watch component or parts of said surface is/are coated with a protective coating, which is not visible by observation with the naked eye, by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The ALD coatings of the invention have very low or no impact on the visible side' dial's aesthetic and will cover the complete dial, including the visible side with its decoration, drills, indexes, but also the back side and the dial feet.
[009| Publication No. EP1538493 relates to an enamel dial with expelled feet, including an enamel dial for a timepiece. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing such a dial, and attach the legs to an accuracy requiring no editing for the subsequent positioning in housings provided in the plate. The dial has a ceramic upper unit (la) having enamel layers (3) on its outer surface. A ceramic lower unit (lb) is provided with a hole (2) to receive a steady-pin (9) by sticking and/or pressing, before assembling the two units by a glue joint (4) and a peripheral weld (6). The two units have same dimensions and have same thickness of about 0.4 to 0.5 millimeters.
[010] Publication No. US4495254 relates to a metal article which is exposed to the atmosphere and abrasion during normal use of the article is protected from scratches and/or corrosion during such use by a thin transparent abrasion-resistant film of an inert non-metallic material such as Si02, SiC, Si3N4, Ti02, MgO, A1203, Ta205, Nb205, Ge02, spinel and selected colorless glass compositions. The protective film is preferably deposited by RF-sputtering techniques and undesirable coloration of the article by optical interference effects from incident

light rays is avoided by properly correlating the film thickness with the refractive index of the particular material used to form the film.
[Oil] Publication No. US6413653 relates to a personal ornament having its surface covered with a colored coating, the colored coating formed by dry-plating, which personal ornament comprises a basis material for personal ornament, composed of a copper alloy or zinc; a nickel plating layer on a surface of the basis material, or a nickel plating layer on a surface of a copper plating layer on a surface of the basis material; an amorphous nickel/phosphorus alloy plating layer on a surface of the nickel plating layer; and at least one colored coating layer on a surface of the amorphous nickel/phosphorus alloy plating layer, the colored coating layer formed by dry-plating, and wherein the amorphous nickel/phosphorus alloy plating layer has a phosphorus content of 11 to 16% by weight.
[012] Publication No. GB2173511 relates to a method of applying a dense tightly adhering stop-off coating to the surface of a substrate including steps of introducing the substrate into an inert atmosphere maintained at a low pressure and depositing on said surface the said stop-off material by means of an ion-plating process. The substrate being a metal blank part of an article to be produced by a plastic forming and diffusion bonding process or it may be a mould tool for use in a superplastic forming process. The stop-off material is preferably Yttria boron nitride, graphite or Alumina and the coating has a thickness of the order of 2 microns.
[013] Thus as the lacquering operation is manual, there are high chances of the lacquer layer getting deposit on the feet. The invention is based on the problem which we face after lacquering, the feet can get covered in lacquer. This lacquer is difficult to remove manually or any other way.
[014] In order to overcome above listed prior art, the present invention aims to provide protective ring to cover the feet during lacquering.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION:
[015] The. principal object of the present invention is to provide a protective ring to cover the feet during lacquering.
[016] Another object of the present invention is to provide a simple and easy to use method to cover the feet during lacquering.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
[017] The present invention relates to a protective ring to cover the feet during lacquering. A ring is designed to protect the feet from lacquer. The ring has two holes to fit onto the feet. The ring must be hard enough to sustain different temperatures while undergoing the lacquer baking process. Ring covers and protects the feet completely during lacquering.
[018] The present invention is a protective ring which is removed after lacquering. This protective ring is not a part of the dial. A ring is provided to cover the feet of the dials to protect it from the lacquer.
BREIF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
[019] It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered for limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
[020] Figure 1 shows protective ring, position X,Y, and depth Z\ depth D' of the ring holes are defined as per the dial feet dimensions.
[021] Figure 2 shows dial position X,Y and Feet length Z and diameter D of the feet is defined as per the requirement of the watch movement.
[022] Figure 3 shows assembly of dial and protective ring
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

[023] The present invention provides a protective ring to cover the feet during lacquering. A ring is designed to protect the feet from lacquer. The ring has two holes to fit onto the feet. The ring must be hard enough to sustain different temperatures while undergoing the lacquer baking process. The ring is made of
5 Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). This low cost material is already developed and easily available in market (use in injection moulding process). ABS is chosen as its molten state temperature is l90°-220° C and baking temperature of the dial lacquers is 140°C and therefore there is no effect on rings while baking the dial, that's why this material is suitable for usage. Ring covers
3 and protects the feet completely during lacquering.
[024] The present invention is a protective ring which is removed after lacquering. This protective ring is not a part of the dial. A ring is provided to cover the feet of the dials to protect it from the lacquer. The ring can be of variable dimensions and shapes and is provided with two or more than two holes of variable diameter and
> depth which can be made using a standard system with variable X, Y and Z
coordinates. At the bottom surface of dial (Figure 2) there are two feet and it is
positioned according to the watch movement requirement, therefore positioning
the dial feet on exact position in the protective ring (Figure 1) hole, specify the X,
and Y coordinate of the feet position (mentioned in the drawing) and depth of the
) hole by Z' and Diameter of the hole D\ D' is kept bigger than feet diameter D of the dial, for easy assembly.
[025] Lacquer is sprayed on the dials by a lacquering gun. This ring is put on the bottom of the dial feet manually before lacquering(Figure 3). Depth of the hole Z' is kept bigger than feet length of Z. so that ring will cover the complete feet.
> Holes of the ring are not through because to protect it from lacquer fumes coming
from the bottom of the ring holes while spraying the lacquer.
[026] The protective ring protects the dial feet from the lacquer, as no lacquer and any other kind of dust particles on feet is allowed, therefore for saving the

cleaning process of feet (which is very time consuming process) after lacquering, we can protect the feet while lacquering with the help of protective ring.
[027] Numerous modifications and adaptations of the system of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and thus it is intended 5 by the appended claims to cover all such modifications and adaptations which fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.

WE CLAIM:
1. A protective ring to cover the feet during lacquering comprises at least two holes variable diameter and depth to fit onto the feet to cover and protect the feet completely during lacquering and can be removed after lacquering characterized in that positioning the dial feet on exact position in the protective ring hole, the X, and Y coordinate of the feet position and depth of the hole by Z' wherein the Diameter of the hole D\ D' is bigger than feet diameter D of the dial, and the holes of the ring are not through because to protect it from lacquer fumes coming from the bottom of the ring holes while spraying the lacquer.
2. The protective ring, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ring can be of variable dimensions and shapes with two or more than two holes of variable and depth can be made using a standard system with variable X, Y and Z coordinates
3. The protective ring, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ring height must be more than the feet length so that it covers the feet properly
4. The protective ring, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ring is hard enough to sustain different temperatures while undergoing the lacquer baking process.