Son Mài - Silver Leaf « Atlantis Blue »

Our vision of the Arts and Crafts extends far beyond the realm of watchmaking. 

Each creation is conceived as a space for cultural expression, an opportunity to showcase ancestral expertise while interpreting it through a contemporary lens. Within the tiny confines of a dial, the brand seeks to transcend borders, celebrate cultural identities, and foster a different relationship with time: slower, more mindful, and more respectful of both craft and material.

Atlantis Blue reveals striking textures and gradients, symbolizing the transition from clear, comforting waters to the mysterious darkness of the deep. Between light and shadow, myth and reality, these dials capture the light, irresistibly drawing the eye to their center and sparking the imagination.

Each dial brings a captivating visual effect through subtle color transitions, achieved by layering multiple pigments and carefully applying lacquer. Crafting a single dial requires over ten hours of focused work to achieve the desired visual and emotional impact.

Vietnamese lacquer, known as Sơn Mài, is a complex and exacting technique perfected over centuries. It all begins with the sap of the Rhus verniciflua, a tree native to northern Vietnam. It takes ten years of growth for a tree to produce just 200 ml of sap per year, harvested only in the early morning in June and July. Purified and dehydrated, this sap becomes a lacquer of incomparable transparency and brilliance, renowned for its protective properties.

Natural pigments are blended directly into the lacquer to create the dial’s colors and contrasts. The lacquer is then applied to the dial in around a dozen successive layers, each carefully polished one by one, providing brilliance, protection, and an almost infinite visual depth.

Prior to the lacquering process, pure silver leaf is applied onto the base of the dial. This extremely precise gesture creates an organic texture, a subtle relief, and lively reflections that interact with light with remarkable intensity.

The entire process, which requires patience, dexterity and extreme concentration, transforms each dial into a unique piece. A true meeting of tradition and modernity, Sơn Mài - Silver Leaf elevates Vietnamese craftsmanship to the rank of watchmaking art, giving each watch a unique, singular face that is incomparable to any other technique.

Oscillating between light and darkness, between the real world and imagined realms, the dials of Atlantis Blue feature AWAKE’s exclusive luminous signature. Both innovative and technical, it draws inspiration from the Japanese aesthetic of chiaroscuro and its play of light, which preserves the mystery of objects.

Departing from traditional construction methods, AWAKE’s hands and indices are crafted on a thin yet robust Super-LumiNova® BGW9 base, meticulously machined and then coated with a layer of polished, faceted steel. This unique design appears subtle and refined in daylight, yet transforms spectacularly in the dark, thanks to a backlighting effect that highlights the exceptional depth of the dials.

Unique dials handcrafted like works of art, a complex, original and exclusive luminous signature, a renowned Swiss caliber, cases and buckles made from recycled stainless steel, straps handcrafted in France: True to our vision, we work tirelessly to offer you a unique proposition combining aesthetic demands, watchmaking quality, craftsmanship, and pure emotion.