Lip

Emmanuel Lipmann founded the business in 1867 with about fifteen workers; it made 970 watches in 1870.^1, 5

It became the société anonyme Lipmann Frères in 1893 under his sons Ernest and Camille, launched the Lip chronometer in 1896 and built a mechanised factory in the Mouillère district in 1902-03.^1, 2, 6

The Lip name was registered in 1908; by 1923 some 200 people made 100,000 watches and chronometers a year.^1, 5

Ernest's son Fred Lipmann, later Fred Lip, was technical director from 1936 and head of the firm from 1944 or 1945; the inventory dossiers give both dates.^1, 2

From 1946 Lip worked with the American Elgin company on an electric watch; on 19 March 1952 it presented the 'Electronic', calibre R 27, sold from 1958, followed by the R 148 in 1962.^1, 2

The regional heritage inventory calls the 1952 Lip the world’s first electric watch, and Wikipedia the first electronic one; it is Lip’s side of a shared story, since the work was done with Elgin.^2, 6

Lip showed a quartz prototype in 1968. The heritage inventory dates its first French series quartz watch to 1975; the French Wikipedia says Lip made the first French quartz watches in 1973.^2, 3

The heritage inventory records that in 1960-62 Fred Lip built a new factory at Palente where 1,200 people made 2,600 watches a day; output reached 600,000 watches in 1968.⁵

In 1967 Ebauches SA, part of the Swiss group ASUAG (later the Swatch Group), took a third of the capital; Fred Lip was removed in 1971.^3, 6, 7

After the director resigned and the firm filed for bankruptcy in April 1973, workers found in an administrator's briefcase on 12 June a plan for 480 dismissals, occupied the Palente factory and hid the stock of watches.^3, 7

From 18 June they restarted production themselves and sold watches directly, under the slogan 'on fabrique, on vend, on se paie'.^3, 6, 7

Riot police cleared the factory on 14 August 1973; on 29 September around 100,000 people marched in Besançon in support.^3, 6

The Dole agreements of January 1974 brought the firm under Claude Neuschwander and all staff were rehired by March 1974; he was removed in 1976, the firm was liquidated again and occupied a second time.^3, 6, 7

After final liquidation on 12 September 1977 the workers formed six cooperatives that November; the Lip cooperative was legally recognised about 1980 and left Palente in 1981.^3, 7

The historian Donald Reid argues that the affair was the bridge between France’s post-war boom and the long period of crisis and unemployment that followed.⁷

The heritage inventory notes that the Lip brand returned to the region in 2015, at Châtillon-le-Duc.⁵