Sơn Mài – Silver Leaf “Lava”

A world first: two Métiers d'Art combined, never before used in watchmaking.

SƠN MÀI takes AWAKE's vision to a whole new level: that of Métiers d'Art, the sanctuary of handwork that elevates the craftsman to the rank of artist and constitutes a cultural heritage whose beauty and poetry we wish to pass on to you...

For the first time in the history of watchmaking, two art crafts - Sơn Mài, Vietnamese sanded lacquer, and gilding with pure silver leaf - come together to create unique dials that will connect you to the magic of workshops, to the beauty of techniques and to the rarity of know-how handed down from generation to generation...

The dials in the SƠN MÀI collection are unique and carry the emotion of the hand that created them. Conceived and crafted as a work of art in its own right, each dial requires between 10 and 15 hours of handwork and concentration.

The art of Vietnamese “Sơn Mài”: mirror shine and depth.

To create the dials of the SƠN MÀI collection, we chose 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 consists in meticulously superposing and polishing a large number of layers of natural lacquer to obtain a lustrous, mirror-like surface. According to Vietnamese tradition, craftsmen incorporate other materials into the lacquer to add texture and depth, achieving the stunning effects that give Vietnamese lacquers their unrivalled prestige.

It all begins with the meticulous extraction of sap from the Rhus Verniciflua tree, which grows in northern Vietnam and produces the most brilliant and precious lacquer. The sap is then treated to remove moisture and impurities, then filtered and dehydrated to obtain a pure, transparent lacquer, distinguished by its protective virtues and complex, shiny surfaces, to which natural pigments are added to create the vibrant palette of nuances found on SƠN MÀI dials.

The Shimmering Elegance of Silver-Leaf Gilding : complexity and delicacy.

To bring texture and depth to our dials, we have opted for the traditional Vietnamese integration of pure silver leaf into the dial base: a complex and delicate method, giving the dials in the SƠN MÀI collection a unique and striking visual effect.

A first coat of lacquer is applied, allowing the silver leaves to adhere. These are then meticulously applied with a brush, then delicately dabbed to create exceptional texture and relief. Natural color pigments are airbrushed on to accentuate the visual effects. Between 10 and 15 layers of lacquer follow, protecting the dial and giving it shine and resistance over time, until the final polishing stage. The entire process, which can take several weeks, demands extreme precision and constant attention to detail, so that each dial in the Sơn Mài collection becomes a unique, captivating work of art of impeccable quality.

Innovative mastery of luminescence for a distinctive visual signature.

Our new luminous signature is inspired by the Japanese aesthetic of chiaroscuro, a poetic approach evoked 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. Faithful to our avant-garde mindset and our desire to shake up codes, we have rethought the traditional construction (luminova above) and imagined a unique luminous signature that magnifies the depth of our dials without compromising their purity or legibility.

The hands and hour-markers are made of a thin, solid and delicately machined base of Super-LumiNova® BGW9 material, then surmounted lengthwise by a faceted and polished steel cap to create a backlighting inspired by chiaroscuro. A unique creative approach that meets two essential criteria: to bring a touch of luxury, elegance and perfect legibility to the daytime dial, without detracting from the beauty and depth of the lacquer, and to sublimate in the dark the intoxicating spectacle of this living, surprising material by revealing the striking details and reflections of the silver leaf. A daring way to display time in a subtle, elegant way, while allowing the dials to emerge in hypnotic beauty...