Lip Churchill T18 Original mechanical silver dial brown leather strap

A French history.

Today, a French watch is reborn with its hand-wound mechanical movement at its original rating. Unique and inspiring to the Swiss competition of the time, it bears the name of its caliber and is the most produced timepiece in watchmaking history by an international brand whose name is pronounced in every language. As you may have guessed, this is LIP's T18, designed, assembled and tested in Besançon, its home town.

It had to satisfy all discerning enthusiasts in search of a timepiece with a design inherited from the Art Deco period and driven by a reference heart. For them and others, LIP, now headed by Pierre-Alain Bérard, is relaunching the celebrated T18, this time with a contemporary hand-wound mechanical caliber. To meet purists' expectations, the dimensions and construction are largely based on those of the movement developed by André Donat from 1931 onwards at the request of Fred Lip, who had just returned from a study trip to the USA.

Visionary, this boss of the most famous French watch brand, now often cited by Hexagonean enthusiasts as one of the world's top five, also had an innate sense of communication. If he'd been around today, he'd no doubt have begun advertising the new generation of T18 mechanical manufactures by saying: “Do you know which is the most widely produced rectangular-shaped watch in the world, and the best known in France, Russia and the USA?

No, collectors, I don't. I'm sure you'll all agree that the T18 is the most widely produced rectangular-shaped watch in the world, and the best known in France, Russia and the USA ?

No, collectors, it's not Rolex's Prince or Jaeger-LeCoultre's Reverso, but LIP's T18, which between 1933 and 1949 produced over 400,000 examples.

The story

The T18 models from the Churchill collection by French watch brand LIP are iconic! These models are typical of the Art-Déco movement, with a rectangular case, off-center seconds and minute track. Both classic and retro, the Churchill T18 is timelessly elegant. The collection is mainly inspired by the T18 model, which was produced from 1935 to the end of the 1950s. Acclaimed for its precision and watchmaking technique, it quickly became one of the French Manufacture's most popular models. It was also one of the first watches to feature an eccentric second.

The name of this collection comes from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, famous for his decisive actions and decisions during the Second World War. An emblematic figure of twentieth-century politics, Wiston Churchill was an elegant English gentleman. That's why a T18 watch was presented to President Winston Churchill in 1948 by the French government in gratitude for his services to France during the Second World War. So it's a fitting tribute to rename a French watch collection in honor of a British Prime Minister.

A model in tune with the times

This model features a slightly enlarged case to conform to today's wearing style, and has been crafted in polished and brushed 316L stainless steel. Produced in small quantities only, it features a dial inspired by the period model, with hand-applied relief numerals and a small gunmetal-colored second hand at 6 o'clock. Its precious sapphire crystal is anti-reflective, rectangular and slightly curved.

The piece is limited to just 150 numbered pieces. It is worn on a brown ostrich strap fitted with a folding clasp, handcrafted in the Sibra workshops in Besançon.

The T18 caliber

This marvel of balance, a veritable icon of the 1930s-1940s, is once again served by the finest caliber available: LIP's brand-new T18 hand-wound mechanical movement. Its components, which have all the same dimensions as the original ones thanks to considerable reverse-engineering work carried out by the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et des Microtechniques (SUPMICROTECH) on a first-generation T18, are machined in Switzerland by the famous La Joux-Perret factory. Finishing and decoration are carried out entirely in the Doubs region, at Roland Bailly SAS. The movement is then assembled in Besançon by the Humbert-Droz company before being cased and checked in the LIP workshops in Besançon.

Visible through the transparent caseback, it reveals its large balance wheel, now oscillating at 3 hertz for greater precision, as well as its delicate traditional finishes such as the “côtes de Genève”, the circular graining, but also the colimaçonnage of the ratchet wheel.

It is important to emphasize that LIP pays particular attention to the final stages of manufacture, including the adjustment of the movement of the new T18 Original. Following the example of its illustrious predecessor, the Calibre T18 of the 2024 generation guarantees precision with a tolerance margin of -12 to +12 seconds per day.