LIP - Nautic 3

While the 1960s gave rise to the great classics of watchmaking, the 1970s revolutionized watches by infusing them with boldness and color. Straddling tradition and innovation, LIP’s Nautic 3 was THE model that best embodied the transition between two decades, two generations, and two eras of our history.

Founded in 1867, LIP has been a part of French history, supplying the watches commemorating the 1918 victory and keeping entire generations of French people on time—from General de Gaulle to our fathers and, even today, to new generations. As France’s leading watch brand and the seventh-largest in the world by the late 1960s, LIP had already revolutionized diving watches with its 1968 Nautic Ski model and its inner rotating bezel. But the Nautic saga did not end there; LIP then launched a diver’s watch unlike any other—still water-resistant to 200 meters—the third and final edition of the Nautic series: the LIP Nautic 3.

Equipped at the time with the revolutionary R184 electromechanical movement—the latest evolution of a French caliber that bridged the gap between mechanical and electronic timepieces—the LIP Nautic 3 held a unique place in the history of watches of its era, embodying a transition: the combination of a late-1960s case with a dial that already foreshadowed the 1970s, with the bold emergence of more vibrant colors on watch dials.

On the LIP Nautic 3, large orange hour markers and oversized luminous indices complement a first version with a black-and-white dial and a second version with a blue-and-white dial. In addition, two-tone baton hands make the watch highly legible and visible behind a 3mm double-domed, anti-reflective-coated, reinforced sapphire crystal, ensuring optimal time-reading.