AWAKE Royal Blue: Pure Gold Meets Vietnamese Lacquer in 200-Piece Edition

Key Highlights

• First use of pure gold leaf in an AWAKE Sơn Mài lacquer dial — a new chapter for the brand’s Métiers d’Art programme
• Limited and numbered edition of 200 pieces, each dial requiring approximately 15 hours of entirely handcrafted work
• New 38mm stainless steel case (316L) with screw-down crown, 100m water resistance and sapphire caseback
• La Joux-Perret G101 automatic movement with 68-hour power reserve and custom tungsten rotor
• Blue Alcantara strap by Jean Rousseau, with new Fitwell M1 micro-adjustable pin buckle in 3mm increments
• Priced at €3,000 taxes and shipping included; delivery September 2026 via awakewatches.com

Signature Features

The Royal Blue represents the first time AWAKE has introduced pure gold into the construction of its Vietnamese Sơn Mài lacquer dials. The result is not a decorative flourish but a structural decision: gold leaf is suspended within successive lacquer layers alongside natural blue pigments ranging from deep sapphire through to soft sky blue. Each dial is built in the manner of a “mille-feuille”, assembled and polished by hand over approximately fifteen hours. A single error at any stage condemns the piece entirely.

Gold and blue have a long chromatic history in both Western heraldry and Vietnamese decorative arts, and AWAKE draws deliberately on that weight. Founder Lilian Thibault has described the choice as “a way of affirming, without words, that one believes in what endures.” For GCC collectors who regard provenance and material permanence as fundamental to a timepiece’s worth, that framing carries genuine resonance.

The Craft Behind the Dial

Vietnamese Sơn Mài and the Frosted Technique

The raw material originates with the Rhus verniciflua tree, cultivated in northern Vietnam. After a decade of growth, each tree yields only 200ml of sap per year, harvested in the early morning hours of June and July. Purified and dehydrated, it becomes a transparent lacquer of exceptional depth and protection. Vietnamese Sơn Mài differs from Chinese and Japanese schools precisely in its incorporation of precious materials — here, pure gold — within the lacquer body itself, creating textures and relief effects that cannot be achieved through surface application alone.

Layer by Layer

Artisans begin with a base of lacquer and deep blue pigments, then varnish the surface before laying down a first sheet of pure gold leaf, applied by brush and sanded to remove excess material. The Frosted (Glacis) technique then repeats this process with lighter blue pigments, building chromatic depth layer by layer. Between each application, the material rests and matures. A final long finger-sanding by the workshop’s most experienced artisan gradually reveals hypnotic reliefs, before several closing coats of lacquer are polished to a mirror finish.

Case, Movement and Strap

The new 38mm case in 316L stainless steel has been designed with a polished bezel featuring concave lines that keep the dial as the visual focal point. Gently domed sapphire crystal and slightly downward-sloping lugs with a stepped profile draw a quiet reference to 1960s proportions without period pastiche. At 11.50mm thick (crystal included) and 44.75mm lug-to-lug, the geometry is compact enough for the GCC climate without reading as a dress-only piece. The crown is now screw-down, rated to 100 metres.

Inside, the La Joux-Perret G101 automatic calibre delivers 68 hours of power reserve. AWAKE has fitted a custom tungsten rotor, machined from a solid block and finished across three surfaces: polished, brushed and micro-blasted. The caseback, also sapphire, carries an engraved rehaut with the brand’s mission statement, “Illuminating the hands and heritage behind rare crafts.” For collectors who regularly attend Watches and Wonders or follow the Fondation Haute Horlogerie‘s advocacy for artisanal watchmaking, this emphasis on craft transparency is consistent with the direction independent houses are taking.

Where It Sits in the AWAKE Collection

Founded in 2019, AWAKE built its identity around revitalising overlooked national craft traditions within the intimate format of a watch dial. The Royal Blue is the third edition in the Frosted line and the first to incorporate gold, marking a deliberate escalation of the technical and material ambition the brand has sustained since its first Sơn Mài release. At €3,000 inclusive of taxes and shipping, it occupies a considered position for an independent edition of 200 pieces: accessible enough for first-time collectors of artisanal independent watches, significant enough to warrant the three-year international warranty and numbered certificate that accompany each piece.

Delivery is scheduled for September 2026 through awakewatches.com, with regional retailers listed on the brand’s points-of-sale page. For collectors in the GCC seeking a piece whose material narrative extends beyond the movement, the Royal Blue offers a coherent argument: two materials, both absolute in their own way, brought together through a technique that will not be replicated.

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