The inventor of a profession

We could get into an endless inventory list if we had to mention every single creation of the master since Roger Tallon and his agency have created and developped at list 400 objects in 1973 and that he was a consultant for General Motors for 7 years. But all this would shadow the importance and depth of his work.

« Designers are the real masochists »
Roger Tallon

It is often said that Roger Tallon was the father of French design. This relationship can be dated to 1957, the year he set up the first course design in France. In 1963, he wasresponsible for the creation of the design department of the Ecole NationaleSuperieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. The year before, but can surprise him andunlike Germany who had known and cultivated what we now call design through theBauhaus, France was not yet have such education. He has somehow created a profession, that of designer, industrial designer, many of which still inspire today.

A visionary man inspired by the needs of an era

Roger Tallon’s accomplishments reflected the needs of the « 30 glorious years » in which consumers aspired to access cutting edge comfort and leisure. In the 1960′s there was certainly no longer only the « designer » but also his approach and philosophy that mattered and supported his amazing achievements. This has always been Roger Tallon’s signature, a « blue print » even recognizable among many other.

For Roger Tallon, an object must first fulfill its  function and allow its owner to use this function with ease and simplicity.

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A concrete example: the Mach 2000

Take one of the most interesting designs, the Mach 2000 watch created for Lip in 1975.

« One of the most creative French designers of the last half century has disappeared, but he left us with some time keepers that have waken up the vocation in the heart of many watch designers in the 21st century. »

Business montres

The half moon shaped  watch was made this way to allow the wrist to bend without discomfort, the handss contrast with the dial allowing its owner to read the time several meters away, the crowns which in fact are rounded buttons, prevent the owner of this atypical timepiece from getting hurt when moving his hand and finally the colors immediately identify the associated function.

At a time when the taste for modernism took over reason, this choice was a real statement in favour of a system of consistent values uppon which ones Tallon held on throughout his carrer during half a century.

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Major projects of Roger Tallon

« Christian Lacroix has changed the colors of the first and second classes: it doesn’t work at all! The SNCF has destroyed all my work. I will never forgive him. »

Roger Tallon

If Roger Tallon is responsable for the creation of hundreds of everyday objects he’s also at the origine of great achievements such as the subway in Mexico City (1969) even though the French railway remains his biggest pride with the first version of the TGV. Also it is worth remembering that it is not only the creator of the the high-speed train’s original design made in France but that he has also worked on its fairly recent update  by making it again more in line with ergonomical requirements of  its time. The visual identity, costumes and mapping company, it is too. The relationship between the man and the outspoken SNCF deteriorated thereafter.

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The prophet of a new playground for the Lip watches

«  »Design is about the beauty of the object, but about understanding the purpose.  »
Roger Tallon

Back on the genesis of the collaboration between Roger Tallon and Lip. It is noticedand named in 1973 by Claude Neuschwander, then head of collections of the brand. Itcomes with six other designers at the bedside of the company after the social movements that have marked France and the politics of the time. Alongside MichelBoyer, Isabelle Hebey or Jean Dinh Van, Roger Tallon part in the adventure Lipdesign. Together they created the collection in 1975.

Baselworld in Basel (Switzerland) is one of the most important watch and jewelery fair in the world, it gathers the most prestigious brands in in an absolutely luxurious surrounding allowing the visitors to contemplate their beautiful products in the best conditions. Of course, Lip  has been coming everytime for several years and has more than its place in this environment. The 2012 edition certainly confirms the enthusiasm displayed by the public during the previous editions. Lip carries on surprising and amazing  with a novelties 145 years after its creation  and will be doing so for a very long time.

Baselworld, the biggest event in watchmaking and jewelery world

Baselworld is considered as the major event of the year for the watch and jewelery community. Like every year, the 40th edition brings together the most popular brands which put all their efforts into presenting the most refined and sophisticated collections. The ones that made ??them famous but also the innovations that might make their future history.

Baselworld is to the watchmaking what the Canne Festival is to the cinema, the temporary capital where all the know how of the trade converges for a week and where all the eyes are turned to.

Lip presented his « 145 years » anniversary model

Lip has made the travel to Basel to showcase not only its watches and its legendary collections but also its creativity and its innovations. The many visitors who had come the fair could admire the five models of our brand and highly anticipated new automatic GDG which was presented in exclusivity.

The first electric watch, a whole story :

After his trip to the USA in 1928, Fred Lip returns to Europe convinced that the electric watch had a future.

The idea of ??an electric watch had been studied since 1939 by Elgin Watch Co (USA), but the research didn’t really begin until 1946. In 1948 research began in Lip. The year 1949 was dedicated to the achievement and the miniaturization of batteries, coils and magnets but also in the manufacture of the equipment needed to carry out different parts of these movements, all in an absolute secret … .
March the 19th, 1952 is the date of the first exhibition of an electric wristwatch in the world at the Academy of Sciences of Paris, the Elgin’s president did the exact same thing the very same day in Chicago at the Blackstone Hotel. The three beats per second excited people’s curiosity, the noise emitted sounded more like a purring cat than a ticking watch …

The reaction of the President of the Academy of Paris, Albert Caquot was significant, he said: « We would have to go back in history as far as the invention of the lever escapement in the eighteenth century to find a discovery of comparable importance in wathchmaking. » The watch was viable but wasn’t ready to be sold. The research carried on in a laboratory still protected by an armed guard.
In 1956, after eight successful but laborious years of work, the first electric watch in the world with contact was ready but still could be improved, with cheaper technical solutions and and by decreasing its consumption.

R27 movement was improved, and the electrical circuit was consolidated and made more reliable. In December the 7th, 1958, four years before Elgin Watch Co (USA), Lip launches his Electronic watch. The first ones are made of gold. The boxes are made in Paris with gold plates welded manually.

This is one of these watches that Fred Lip offered General de Gaulle in December 1958 and General Dwight Eisenhower a few weeks later.

The de Gaulle watch has evolved and this is a new page of  a 60 years young legend that has just been written. It had taken years to  the Lip engineers to achieve and produce the first electric watch in 1956 which revolutionized the world of watchmaking at the time … Now, with this new Automatic watch Lip shows once again  its desire to evolve and adapt itself to the requests of its customers by giving a new mecanical and more contemporary heart to an iconical watch.

THE ELECTRICAL VERSION WAS A REAL QUEST

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Discover a brand new legend : The automatic GDG

GDG AUTOMATIC CHROME

Creator : Fred Lip

Creation date : 1952

Description :
Chrome case – movement Miyota 8215 Automatic - genuine leather strap.

269.00 €

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GDG AUTOMATIC GOLD SILVER

Creator : Fred Lip

Creation date : 1952

Description :
Gold colored case – movement Miyota 8215 Automatic - genuine leather strap.

269.00 €

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GDG AUTOMATIC MILANESE CHROME

Creator : Fred Lip

Creation date : 1952

Description :
Gold colored case – movement Miyota 8215 Automatic - Milanese strap.

279.00 €

Add to basket

Fred Lipmann

Fred Lipman has not only been the major actor in Lip’s survival when the financial crisis was th menacing but also greatly contributed  to it’s position nationally and internationally thanks to new production methods inspired by the biggest U.S. factories. In the darkest hours of the war, he also continued with its engineers to innovate by creating in spite of the circumstances, simplified movements before joining the  resistance and get back  « La Mouillère »  manufacture from it’s invaders.

Fred Lipman was born in Besançon on the day of the Dead as he often liked to recall. An adage which highlights even more the will of a determined man ready to break with the past and willing to to change Lip the watchmaker into something much bigger …

His school years was far from being honorable and in 1922 Fred Lipmann failed at the oral of his bachelor degree which, however,was far more difficult in those days. As a result his father decided to put Fred in the watchmaking school in Besançon and allowing him to obtain a diploma in 1925 with a special mention for his achievement at the end of his study.

After his military service from Fred on a study trip to the United States where he will visit course many watch manufacturers but also the Harley Davidson assembly plants are as passionate about sports.
This visit inspired him and he is determined to implement the same methods of production for Lip.

Having served as « charming salesman in a shop watch the Grands Boulevards Paris, » as he liked to joke, he returned in 1931 in Besançon join the family business in a rather dark as the watchmakers Lip through a major crisis financial.

Le T18 russe : Swesda / Zvezda (étoile)

Lip in Pushkin’s country

In 1936 Fred Lip Lip is technical director of Watch and oversees agreements with the USSR important parts of watches and gauges in large quantities allowing Lip to emerge victorious from his fight against the crisis and until the edge of the second world war. For many years the original Lip gauges are assembled in a factory designed with the help of technicians Lip Watchmaker. These agreements were in perfect harmony with the will of the Soviets to develop the watch in the USSR. In fact Russia did not have the reputation for building highly accurate timepieces also have the watches before 1917 was just wood and bone. It was not until the 30 years before you see the watches a little less rough. The association with Lip was thus the culmination of this effort by the Soviets to modernize this industry for too long neglected.

The second world war

Montre de bord "aeronef T14"

From 1938 with the imminent arrival of a conflict that nobody wanted to believe, however, must Lip militarize its production under the impulse of the French authorities as well as other large companies. « Saprolip » Fred Lipmann which is the general manager is created that year to meet this need.
And watches are produced on that team as the T10 aircraft « Southern Cross » by Jean Mermoz. In 1939 Fred went to London to study with the RAF (the Royal Air Force) the possibility of large-scale production of this watch-board highly accurate watches and T14 aircraft (pictured below against ) or anti-aircraft rockets and ground-ground air defense.
Unfortunately in 1940 the factory was requisitioned by German troops and is led by Mr Ditetrich Alsatian and Major Reile quet watches are produced for the German brand Junghans as well as on-board instruments for the Aviation. During this period, T 18 and T 12 continue to be produced.

Fred Lipman and the staff of Lip is now to where you installed Saprolip Issoudun (military wing of Lip) that with the defeat of French forces and the armistice must convert this valve in the production of a bicycle!

Lip Of course, under the leadership of Fred Lipmann did not end so easily and in 1941 thanks to the ingenuity of its engineers developed the « I24″ responding to the shortage matériauxet tools of the time by offering a Simplified class. It is the only free movement produced in France at the time!
On the night of 13 to 14 September 1942 the commando Pierre Georges said, « Colonel Fabien » emblematic figure of the French resistance blew up with his commando transformer that powers the factory Lip Mouillère paralyzing production.
The official anti-Semitism is becoming more and more pressing Fred Lipmann joined the underground and is active in the resistance.
In 1944 the Germans attempt to steal the machines in the factory Mouillère but fail to do so through various sabotage and two workers whose task was to identify Lip machines in Germany are divided into Besançon almost immediately after have arrived.

Soon after Fred Lipmann returned to Besançon, expelled the occupants of his office, and it is in a war-ravaged Besançon or only the Lip factory seems to stand with the pain of losing his father died in deportation, he went back to work to rebuild the Lip Watchmaker what they were before the war.

Discover our legendary : The Type 18

TYPE 18 CHROMEE

Creator : Fred Lip

Created in : 1935

Description :
Chromed case – Movement Ronda slimtec 1064- grey strap, genuine leather.

149.00 €

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TYPE 18 CHAMPAGNE

Creator : Fred Lip

Created in : 1935

Description :
Golden case – movement Ronda slimtec 1064- brown strap, genuine leather.

149.00 €

See the product’s page

TYPE 18 OR

Creator : Fred Lip

Created in : 1935

Description :
Golden case – movement Ronda slimtec 1064- black strap, genuine leather.

149.00 €

See the product’s page

In a much calmer atmosphere regarding the creation and the economical results, Baselworld for Lip was alternately a friendly and authentic business flourished by meetings. Located in Hall 1, Lip welcomed over 400 visitors in its new stand…

Such as buyers, journalists, collectors, designers from Tokyo, New York, Malaysia, England, but also from Besançon and Paris ! Everyone came to see our new editions creations and designs, always original and financially accessible.

So that’s it until the 2012 edition ! we’ll hit the road and and keep the good work for Lip and its 145 candles !!!

BASELWORLD is one of the most important fair in the world dedicated to Jewellery Watchmaking . Every spring, companies from all sectors of the watchmaking industry,  jewelry and gem put on display their new collections and innovations in Basel, Switzerland.

The most prestigious brands in the world compete in creativity to display their past and new collections.  Lip, watchmake since 1867 will obviously be involved in this major global event.