Uber-hip French watch brand Lip set for Hong Kong return, as buyout team seeks to restore its lustre

Watch sales in Hong Kong have had a difficult few years, at least in comparison to the 2000s boom. As a result, many European brands cut back their exposure to the Hong Kong market, and others were deterred from opening up shop. French brand Lip, though, is bucking the trend and is set on relaunching itself in the city.

“It is the most famous watch brand in France,” Lip chief executive Philippe Berard said at last week’s Hong Kong Watch and Jewellery show. Berard led a buyout of Lip two years ago and, slowly but surely, has attempted to return some of the lustre to a watchmaker founded in 1867 in the French city of Besancon, which at the time was the clockmaking capital of the world.

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Despite its undoubted heritage and rich archive of designs, under its previous owners Lip fell some way from its heyday as the watch of choice for the French elite.

“It’s been difficult these past two years, the watches were being sold in low-price chains. The owners before had allowed the stamping of the Lip logo on any kind of plastic watch you could find in the supermarket. This had to stop,” says Berard, who has spent much of his time winding down distribution deals and restructuring manufacturing.

Instagram posts from Lip fans