Key Highlights
- First collection in watchmaking to unite hand Guilloché engraving and Vietnamese Sơn Mài lacquer on a single dial
- Three limited editions — Alba, Sunset, Borealis — each numbered to 200 pieces
- New 38 mm case in 316L stainless steel with polished concave bezel and 10 ATM water resistance
- Swiss La Joux-Perret G101 automatic movement, 68-hour power reserve, custom tungsten rotor
- Jean Rousseau Alcantara straps with new Fitwell M1 micro-adjustable pin buckle
- Retail price €2,650 (excl. taxes); first batch of 50 pieces ships end of June 2026
Two Crafts, One Dialogue
Since its founding in 2019, AWAKE has built its identity around one conviction: that the dial is a cultural document, not merely a surface for telling time. The Sơn Mài – Guilloché Main collection is the clearest articulation of that conviction to date. For the first time in watchmaking, hand guilloché — practiced in Italy by the Renzetti family on 19th-century straight-line and rose engine lathes — shares a dial with the ancestral Vietnamese lacquer technique of Sơn Mài, applied by master lacquerers in Hanoi. The combination is unprecedented, and the result carries the weight of that rarity.
The guilloché work is executed entirely without numerical assistance. The artisan rotates the dial with one hand while guiding the cutting tool with the other, engraving the fine grooves that define each pattern. Each dial is therefore singular: the hundreds of grooves vary between pieces and between hands. Any error demands starting over. This is a discipline inherited from masters including Peter Carl Fabergé, and it remains among the most demanding forms of watchmaking artistry recognized by the Fondation Haute Horlogerie.
Sơn Mài: Depth That Cannot Be Replicated
Sơn Mài lacquer is derived from the sap of the Rhus Verniciflua tree, purified and enriched with natural pigments before being applied in multiple ultra-thin layers over the guilloché surface. Each layer is polished before the next is applied. The process lasts approximately fifteen hours per dial and produces a visual depth that shifts with the angle of light — the guilloché grooves visible beneath, the lacquer above, the two locked together permanently. As AWAKE founder Lilian Thibault describes it, the collection is designed to make the brand “a meeting ground for artisans from around the world, united in a shared pursuit of excellence and harmony.”
Three Versions, Three Celestial Sources
Sunset, Alba, Borealis
The “Sunset” dial employs a drapé-moiré guilloché pattern inherited from the 1930s — around one hundred grooves evoking the undulations of the ocean — then finished in shades of pink, violet, and blue. “Alba” draws from an incandescent sunrise through a helical guilloché motif, with warm lacquer gradients amplifying the sense of momentum. “Borealis” references the aurora borealis through a radiant pattern with fluid, vibrant lines; in shifting light, the dial produces almost otherworldly reflections. All three editions are limited to 200 numbered pieces. Each version has appeared across the broader independent watchmaking conversation at events like Watches and Wonders, where Métiers d’Art pieces of this ambition command serious collector attention.
A New Case and a Refined Identity
The 38 mm case in 316L stainless steel represents a deliberate step toward more refined proportions. A polished concave bezel draws the eye to the dial; the gently domed sapphire crystal and slightly downward-curving lugs reference 1960s case architecture without pastiche. The interplay of polished surfaces and brushed flanks asserts controlled modernity. Water resistance reaches 10 ATM through a redesigned screw-down crown bearing a new craft emblem. On the caseback, a sapphire display reveals the La Joux-Perret G101 movement and its custom tungsten rotor — machined from solid, with alternating recessed and raised surfaces finished in polished, brushed, and micro-blasted treatments. The rotor ring is engraved with AWAKE’s mission: “Illuminating the hands and heritage behind rare crafts.”
Luminous Signature and Strap
The hands and indices combine Super-LumiNova® BGW9 with steel caps in polished, brushed, and finely engraved finishes — discreet in daylight, expressive after dark. Jean Rousseau’s Alcantara straps, available in green, violet, or orange, are fitted with the new Fitwell M1 micro-adjustable pin buckle allowing 3 mm incremental adjustments. The strap dimensions are 115 × 75 mm at 20/16 lug width.
Priced at €2,650 excluding taxes, the collection is available directly through awakewatches.com. The first batch of 50 pieces ships at the end of June 2026, with a second batch of 100 pieces in September 2026.
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