Lip is a French watchmaking brand that had its golden age from the 1940s up to the very early 1970s. It then disappeared as a watch manufacturer. They are known for making reliable manual winding calibers, watches with avant-garde design, and the first ever electric movements in the world.

The Nautic Ski is a range of dive watches made by Lip. « Nautic » as a reference to diving, and « ski » in honor of Muriel, Fred Lipmann’s (owner of Lip) daughter, who was part of the French world skiing team. The Nautic-ski watches were to be the official watches of the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.

This particular model is from the early 70s, one of the last batch of watches made by Lip before the social and industrial turmoils of the brand. It features a super compressor steel case with hidden crowns, an inner rotating bezel, beautiful blue-grey dial with lovely aged tritium, a super dome plexi. It wears very modern with its 42mm case size, albeit very short lugs, making it perfect for small wrists like mine too.

The R184 electric caliber was very innovative when it came out in the late 60s. It makes the central seconds hand move in a pretty unique jittery way. It’s unfortunately not very precise and requires some adjustment. Not all watchmakers can work on these movements and parts are not easy to find. The charm of the watch makes up for it though as it has a really decorative dial, and you can feel the 70s vibes without it being too bold nevertheless. I have paired my example with a vintage period correct Atlantic rubber strap which could have been delivered with the watch at the time.

Finding an example of these Nautic-ski watches in good condition is a tough task, and certain prices can quickly get high. If the electronic movement scares you, they also exist with automatic Durowe movements which are robust and easy to service.