A new approach to Métiers d’Art
Sơn Mài Leaf
To celebrate our 5th anniversary, we are delighted to unveil SƠN MÀI: our first permanent Swiss Made and Métiers d'Art collection, featuring four new 39 mm models with unique dials handcrafted using the age-old technique of “Sơn Mài”, the Vietnamese art of sanded natural lacquer, and magnified by the subtle application of pure silver leaf.
TThis new stage in the AWAKE watchmaking journey is a world first, combining two Métiers d'Art with luminescent innovation and a Swiss movement...
French creativity, Swiss watchmaking excellence and Vietnamese ancestral art combine to offer you the quintessence of traditional art and contemporary watchmaking, with an unrivalled value proposition.
A new era for AWAKE
A World First - 2 Métiers d'Art combined never before used in watchmaking.
For the first time in the history of watchmaking, two Métiers d'Art - Sơn Mài, Vietnamese sanded lacquer, and pure silver leaf gilding - come together to create unique dials, imagined and realized as works of art in their own right, and requiring between 10 and 15 hours of manual labor and concentration.
SƠN MÀI takes AWAKE's vision to a new dimension: that of Métiers d'Art, the sanctuary of handwork that elevates the craftsman to the rank of artist, and constitutes a cultural heritage whose poetry, rarity and beauty of techniques are passed down from generation to generation...
The Shimmering Elegance of Silver-Leaf Gilding
To give the dials in the Sơn Mài collection a striking visual effect, and to offer you a unique sensory experience inviting introspection and inner journey, we have opted for the integration of pure silver leaf in the dial base: a complex and delicate method stemming from an ancestral Vietnamese technique, elevated to the rank of a national art: laminage (rolling).
The entire process, which can take several weeks, requires extreme precision and constant attention to detail, so that each dial in the Sơn Mài collection becomes a unique, captivating work of art of the highest quality.
La laque Sơn Mài
For the manufacturing our dials, we have chosen a technique never before used in watchmaking. Sơn Mài, or Vietnamese sanded lacquer, is one of Vietnam's oldest and most emblematic traditional arts.
This ancestral art, which consists of meticulously superimposing and polishing layers of natural lacquer to achieve a lustrous, mirrored surface, stands in stark contrast to other lacquer techniques found in China and Japan.
Indeed, Vietnamese tradition is to incorporate other materials into the lacquer, such as crushed eggshells, gold or silver leaf or mother-of-pearl, to add texture and depth, and thus achieve the stunning effects that give Vietnamese lacquers their unrivalled prestige.
New distinctive luminous signature
It has taken a year of testing and R&D to give the Sơn Mài collection an all-new, innovative Super-LumiNova® BGW9 luminous signature inspired by the Japanese aesthetic of chiaroscuro.
The complex construction of our indexes and hands creates a subtle play of chiaroscuro and generates backlighting effects that magnify the depth and reflections of lacquer, for a unique visual experience.
Our new luminous signature is inspired by the Japanese aesthetic of chiaroscuro, a poetic approach described by Junichirō Tanizaki in his book “In Praise of Shadows”, in which he emphasizes that beauty lies in the subtle relationship we maintain with objects and the play of light that preserves their mystery...
True to the avant-garde spirit and the desire to shake up the codes that characterize AWAKE, we have rethought the traditional use and function of Super-LumiNova® and imagined a unique luminous signature that magnifies the depth of our dials without compromising their purity or legibility.
““Lacquerware (…) is not something to be seen in a brilliant light, to be taken in at a single glance; it should be left in the dark, a part here and a part there picked up by a faint light (…) details receding into the darkness, conjuring in their stead an inexpressible aura of depth and mystery.” - Junichirō Tanizaki - “In Praise of the Shadow"
In opposition to traditional construction (Super-LumiNova® on top), hands and indexes are made of a thin, solid, delicately machined base of Super-LumiNova® BGW9 material, then surmounted lengthwise by a faceted, polished steel cap to create a chiaroscuro inspired backlighting.
A creative approach that fulfils two essential criteria: to bring a touch of luxury, elegance and perfect legibility to the dial by day, without compromising the beauty and depth of the lacquer, and to sublimate in the dark the captivating spectacle of this living, surprising material, by revealing the striking details and reflections of the silver leaf it covers.
AWAKE's mastery of luminescence highlights a bold desire to display time in a subtle, elegant way, while allowing the dials to emerge with hypnotic beauty.
