The Lip Électronic grew out of research Lip carried out with the American Elgin National Watch Company from the late 1940s. On 19 March 1952 the two firms publicly showed working laboratory electric wristwatches, in Paris and in Chicago, among the first ever presented. The early prototype, known as the R23, used a contact switch: a fine wire on the balance staff touched a fixed terminal to close a circuit and energise a coil. The production calibre, the R27, followed with a fixed coil, a piece of refined iron on the balance wheel and mechanical contacts, plus a small diode to limit sparking at the contacts, which is why it is often described as the first “electronic” watch movement. It needed two batteries, one for each coil. Cases were made in stainless steel and in gold, and from the front the watch looks much like a conventional wristwatch; the crown sits on the case back.

Although shown in 1952, the R27 only reached customers in 1958, a few months after the Hamilton Electric of 1957, which is generally credited as the first electric watch on sale; the R27 is usually described as the first European one. Sources give its production run as 1958 to 1960 or up to 1963, with estimates of a few thousand pieces, perhaps around 7,000. Fred Lip, head of the company, presented the watch to General de Gaulle and then to General Eisenhower, and Lip itself calls it the first electric watch that paved the way to quartz. The firm then developed further electric calibres, such as the R148 and R184.

Collectors value the Lip Électronic as a milestone of French watchmaking and of the electric era between mechanical and quartz watches, though some note that it was bulky, required two costly button cells and never outsold Hamilton’s electric models. Prices remain modest compared with its historical importance: one specialist puts typical values at 500 to 2,000 dollars depending on condition and metal, and at a Besançon auction in March 2025 a 1958 yellow gold Vanguard Electronic R27 similar to de Gaulle’s reached 3,700 euros. De Gaulle’s own gold R27 was offered by Artcurial in December 2024. The R27 Électronic is no longer produced; Lip, still based in Besançon, honours it with its current General de Gaulle (GDG) models, which use modern movements rather than the electric calibre.