The French company, 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.

In September 1962, the R 148 appeared; it was a great improvement over the R 27, being easy to service and only requireing a single battery.

Below is the only watch I own with LIP on the dial; the LIP Nautic-Ski Electronic containing the LIP R 184 or Datolip. The R 148 and R 184 were very similiar, the latter being the first electric watch with a date.

I do have over 40 watches with the superb R 148 electronic movement; some of these watches containing this movement can be seen by clicking on the links below:

• Belforte
• Gervias Pernaud
• Sovereign
• Vulcain
• Waltham

Literature on the LIP company is scarce and any that does exist is usually in French. However, Nick Downes wrote a very good summary for Timezone back in 2002 and, with his permission, I reproduce the orginal article under the "History" link on the lefthand side.

The LIP R 148 movement: