WATCH DISPLAY STAND

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to the presentation of watch, jewelry or other products. More specifically, the invention relates to a watch display stand whose juncture between the base portion and the stem allows easy manipulation in and from showcases, shop windows or watch stands.

Description of the Prior Art

In watch display stands from the prior art, the juncture between the stem on which the watch is exposed and the base portion usually has a cylindrical, square or other polygonal section of constant diameter or side.

Cylindrical shaped junctures bear several disadvantages regarding the handling of the stem on which the watch is exposed. During manipulation, the stem may rotate because the cylindrical plug and socket have a circular diameter

and do not have an angle that would prevent it from rotating. As a result, the stem on which the watch is exposed may not present the watch at the right angle, e.g. may not face customers looking at it in showcases, shop windows or on watch stands. In addition, it may also be difficult for the salesman to remove an exposed watch because of the constant diameter of the cylindrical juncture, which may make difficult to extract the cylindrical stem on which the watch is exposed from the corresponding socket . Finally, by removing a watch from its stem, it may happen that the salesman touches another watch exposed with another same watch display stand, thus allowing this later watch to rotate and modifying the angle in which the watch is exposed to customers.

Watch display stands using plug and socket pieces with square, rectangular or polygonal sections resolve the problem caused by the free swiveling of the stem on which the watch is fixed, as the plug piece with a square or polygonal section cannot rotate into the corresponding square or polygonal socket piece. However, such watch display stands only resolve the swiveling problem: having a polygonal section of constant side length, it is still

difficult to extract the stem of polygonal section on which the watch is exposed out from the corresponding socket.

In view of the prior art, there is a need to produce an attractive watch display stand which is easy to handle by salesmen. None of the traditional existing displays with a cylindrical, square, rectangular or other polygonal juncture shape between the stem and the socket resolve the problems such as described above in a satisfactory manner, notably due to a constant diameter or side length.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a transversal view of a display stand according to the invention, wherein the plug (3) is truncated as well as the corresponding socket (4) , and wherein said plug is shown before insertion in said socket.

Fig. 2 is a transversal view of the display stand of Fig. 1, after insertion of the plug (3) within the socket (4) .

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a display stand with a plug (3) and a socket (4) having a truncated pyramid shape.

Fig. 4 is a transversal view of a display stand wherein the plug (3) is located on the base portion (2) and the socket (4) is located on the stem (1) .

Fig. 5 is a transversal view of the display stand of Fig. 1, after insertion of the plug (3) within the socket (4) .

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a display stand comprising a stem (1) and a base portion (2) linked through a plug (3) and a socket (4) , characterized in that said plug has a conical or, alternatively, a pyramidal shape, and said socket has a corresponding shape.

For the purpose of this invention, a pyramid (or pyramidal shape) is defined as a solid figure with a polygonal base and triangular faces that meet at a common point .

In an alternate embodiment, the display stand according to the invention is characterized in that said conical or pyramidal plug (3) is truncated perpendicularly to the main axis (5) of said plug, and in that said socket (4) has a 95 corresponding truncated shape or a corresponding non- truncated shape .

Said plug (3) may be located on the stem (1) of the display stand, while said socket (4) is located on the base portion 100 (2) of the display stand.

Alternatively, said plug (3) may be located on the base portion (2) of the display stand, while said socket (4) is located on the stem (1) of the display stand.

105

The embodiment of the invention with a pyramidal shape juncture resolves both problems mentioned above. The stem (1) of the display stand may no longer swivel around the axis (5) of the juncture, since the angulations of the

110 pyramidal plug (3) and socket (4) prevent the stem from swivelling around. In addition, the stem (1) is easy to remove from the base portion (2) , due to the pyramidal shape of the plug (3) . The embodiment of the invention with

a conical shape juncture also resolves this problem, due to 115 the conical shape of the plug (3) .

The display stand may be used for any kind of products. Preferably, it may be used as a watch display stand, or as a jewelry display stand.

120

In order to minimize the visual impact of the display stand in comparison to the product being displayed, the display stand according to the invention may be made of transparent or translucent materials, such as plastic, glass or any

125 other suitable material .

The drawings show selected embodiments of the display stand according to the invention. The skilled person may devise many alternate embodiments of the invention. 130