Hello Christopher,
Thank you for sending in this interesting electronic wristwatch in to mearto.com.
TITLE:
Gent’s vintage gold plated and stainless steel, electromechanical mechanical wristwatch with its grain of rice interwoven textured flexible gold plated bracelet, S/N 309537, likely calibre R148 movement pr variant, made by the LIP Watch Company, Besançon, France, circa 1970.
PROVENANCE:
From grandparents.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: approximated to be 33-36 mm in diameter without the crown. This is a round gold filled watch with smooth polished and canted bezel, self-wound, with fluted setting crown and screwed down case steel back cover. There are gilt bar-bell lugs. The back cover marked, “logo of the crowned eagle above LIP, Stainless steel back, waterproof and antimagnetic” and a serial number that appears to be 309537. The watch is integrated nicely with a tapered rice grain mesh flexible bracelet in gold color but the latch at the end is already showing the wear to the gold plating revealing the underlying white metal beneath the gilding. Therefore the bracelet is not solid gold.
Dial: Guilloche textured gilt dial with applied gilt baton hours, double batons @12, sunken subsidiary seconds dial @6, gilt metal Dauphin hands and the dial marked “LIP, Electric, Incabloc”.
Movement: Not shown - Believed to be a version of the popular LIP calibre R148 with electromechanical controlled balance motor, hack feature and a subsidiary second’s dial instead of a sweep seconds. By the early 1970s they improved the movement up to the calibre R184 (The Datolip). 11.5''', DIAMETER = 25.6mm, made with either 12 or 13 jewels and vibrating at 18000 beats/hour.
Condition: case and bracelet: Fair with scratches on the back of the case and wear to the gilding on the bezel.
Dial: Good with some wear to the wording, ‘electric’ and ‘Incabloc’. MOVEMENT NOT SEEN.
HISTORY:
~The history of LIP has been beautifully written up by Nick Downes and it can be found at:
https://electric-watches.co.uk/makers/lip/lip-history/
~As far as their electric watches are concerned, LIP produced the world’s second electric movement, the R 27, in 1958. It was, however, the world’s first “electronic” movement because it contained a tiny diode to reduce sparking on the contacts; it was a bulky unit and required two batteries. Approximately 7000 units were made and it quite hard to find today.
In September 1962, the R 148 appeared; it was a great improvement over the R 27, being easy to service and only requiring a single battery. The R 148 and R 184 were very similar, the latter being the first electric watch with a date. There are many watches on this website containing these movements, including: Belforte, Benrus, Gervias Pernaud, Sovereign, Stowa, Vulcain and Waltham.LIP are also well known for their association with the designer Roger Tallon. The R 148 / R 184 appeared in several of his case designs. The ladies LIP movement, R 50, was also used in a Roger Tallon designed case. All the genuine Roger Tallon designed watches from the 1960s now fetch relatively large sums of money. They have all become very collectible.
COMPARABLES:
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/52610770_electronic-wristwatch-lip-made-of-steel-in-functional (An electronic model with date was passed because it did not reach $100 in 2017)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/60720715_lip-electronic (passed as it did not reach 500 Euros despite the solid gold case.)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/49026098_lip-gilted-electronic-wristwatch-made-circa-1970 (Special electronic model failed to reach 200 Euros in 2016)
PRICING:
I believe the fair market value of this vintage electronic controlled mechanical mot wristwatch, given its condition would range from $150-$200. Thank you again for choosing mearto.com for this appraisal.
My best,
David