3. Prince François de Baschmakoff

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C.3 Prince François de Baschmakoff

Studied at the 'Ecole de Métier d'Art' and at the 'Ecole des Beaux Arts' in Paris. He made illustrations for fashion magazines and comics, wrote stories and made sketches for 'Les Nouvelles Litteraires'. He worked for Printemps and Witzig, designed packages and won a prize in a packaging contest with the globe shaped plastic watch box for the watches he designed for Lip. He was a famous colourist and the first 'modern' free lance designer for Lip.

1931	Born in Paris, December 27th.
1968	On October 14th, he files an application for a patent for a mechanical watch with digital time indication, which is granted in 1970 under number 1586999 in France. Baschmakoff is to design many watches later on in life.
1968	Baschmakoff contacts Fred Lip to show his work. The result is a contract with the Lip Factory for several years.
1973	Baschmakoff designs for Kelton, a subsidiary company of Timex. It is unknown if the designs were ever taken into production.
1981	Dies in Marseille, France, May 5th.

In 1970, Baschmakoff designed the following digital watches with an automatic A.S.1902 or a non automatic A.S.1900 movement. The sale started in 1972. The watches were not suitable for every day use, since the discs which indicate the time were too heavy for the small pivot which would normally be used for hands only. The watches displayed under number 5 are also likely to have been designed by Baschmakoff.

1	Chromium plated with a black leather strap (Ref.no. 42963) and gold plated with a brown leather strap. (Ref.no. 42962)
2	Steel watch with a steel strap. (Ref.no. 42964) Since difficulties were found in attaching the watch to the wrist, the clasp was changed by the addition of a spring link.
3	Chromium plated with blue leather strap and chromium plated with steel strap. (Ref.no. unknown)
4	The same as no. 3 without the steel clasp on the case.
5	Gold plated with brown leather strap (Ref.no. 42883) and chromium plated with blue leather strap. (Ref.no. 42882)

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