Cool Hunting

To celebrate my redesigned Watchismo.com website and year anniversary contributing to CH, I thought I'd force my Lips on you all!

Actually, I'm giving away a $300 French LIP watch, your pick from six styles, each one evolved from the original 1970s Mach 2000 (below left and right) and other seventies designer series. LIP is a 150-year-old watch company that hired some of the hippest designers of the sixties and seventies to create a futuristic line of wristwatches like nothing seen before (or since). The brand disappeared for almost three decades since the mid-seventies but now they're back, faithfully reviving many of the original series and even adding some new designs. Watchismo is the exclusive distributor in the U.S.

The most influential by far was Roger Tallon, who has designed everything from mid-century modern furniture to space-age high speed trains. From the fifties through the eighties, Tallon created everything from modern 8mm cameras, portable televisions, modular staircases and furniture, motorcycles, cars, typewriters, industrial equipment and subway maps to the aforementioned bullet shaped French TGV train.

Most iconic horologically was his asymmetric and rectangular aluminum Mach 2000 watches, easily distinguished by the primary color protruding balls for crowns and pushers for the chronographs. Each ball is situated with stylish negativity inside the cutaways of the watch case. Tallon designed a multitude of other styles including a digital LED "Diode" (above left), minimal "Frigo" (below center) and boxy "Tele" (below center).

The designer that started it all in 1969 was by Prince Francois de Baschmakoff. His Jump Hour (pictured above right), though often imitated in the four decades since, hasn't been reproduced true to the original design—with spinning digital discs and overlapping interchangeable straps—until now.

And taking a step into the past with a leap into the future is up and coming French LIP designer, Prisca Briquet and her "Mythic" (top center) It takes Roger Tallon's "Tele" case design and adds a new twist, revealing the entire dial with exposed digital discs that line up to tell the time.

One lucky CH reader will have their pick of the litter but the rest of you can have 10% off any LIP purchase at Watchismo just by mentioning Cool Hunting. See a few of my favorites and some other watches that make great gifts in the gift guide.

To enter, send an email to watchismo [at] gmail [dot] com with "CH LIP Watch Giveaway" in the subject line by 14 December 2007. (Please note that your name will be added to the (infrequent and not annoying) Watchismo mailing list by entering.