AWAKE Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red Watch Review
The AWAKE Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red indulges watch collectors who place craftsmanship ahead of convention. Its dial unites red and gold hues, playing with texture, light and reliefs. Here, uniformity has been quietly abandoned in favour of individuality. An ancestral Vietnamese lacquer technique, carefully adapted for modern timekeeping, takes centre stage, serving as a visual anchor for the entire design.
AWAKE watches
Luxury watches that occupy the affordable end of the pricing spectrum are many things, but seldom are they the product of protracted craftsmanship. At this more attainable end of the market, dials are usually engineered for ease of production. Lacquered, yes, but made in volumes with stamped and printed surfaces that prioritise consistency over character. Of course, this approach is perfectly valid. Prices are kept sensible and dials are often treated as a surface rather than a canvas for artistic expression. But dials of the Métiers d’Art type are much different. Here, finishing is more than just a background by which the hands and indices tell the time. Rather, these displays exhibit remarkable skill and technique. The human input behind every facet, texture and imperfection is viewed as proof of intent and care.
Techniques that demand this level of patience and repetition are typically reserved for watches that sit on a higher plain, safely insulated from the pressures of scale and margin. An exception exists, however, for the watch manufacturer, AWAKE, which has democratised artisanal craftsmanship with its Sơn Mài collection, offering hand-lacquered masterpieces at remarkably accessible prices. The Parisian brand challenges the long-held assumption that time-consuming craftsmanship must be prohibitively expensive. The Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red showcases a Vietnamese lacquering technique coupled with a lustrous silver leaf application – a combination that reveals itself anew with each glance.
Sơn Mài technique
Métier d’Art watches are admired for transforming dials into spaces where traditional craftsmanship and modern techniques, like laser engraving or electroplating, coexist. AWAKE’s fusion of ancient Vietnamese Sơn Mài lacquer and silver leaf work pushes this tradition in an even more unexpected direction. Distinct from Chinese and Japanese lacquering, Sơn Mài is defined by its depth and tactility, achieved through the inclusion of materials such as crushed eggshell, mother-of-pearl and precious metal leaf. Even the lacquer itself is rare. Drawn in small quantities from mature Rhus verniciflua trees native to northern Vietnam, the special sap is painstakingly refined before pigments are introduced. Adding a contemporary flourish to the dial, ‘lacquer artisans’ integrate pure silver leaf decoration between multiple layers of lacquer, creating visual richness.
This isn’t the first time the brand has explored this horological art form. AWAKE first revealed these dials with the launch of four models towards the end of 2024, each combining the ancestral art of Vietnamese sanded lacquer and delicately applied silver leaf in several enticing colours. Still, it’s the first time that the silver leaf has been treated with a warm copper tint, allowing the dial to shift beautifully between warm light and soft shadows.
AWAKE Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red – dial
The Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red owes its technique to a discovery made by Lilian Thibault, AWAKE’s founder, while backpacking in Vietnam in 2008. He was captivated by a textured woodcut painting which showcased the intricate layering of lacquer and blended natural pigments. Transforming the dial into a textured landscape, lacquer artisans have strayed from the typical Sơn Mài process to create this 100-piece limited edition. This time, the steps are performed in reverse. The silver leaf, treated with flecks of warm copper, forms the top layer of the rich red dial, rather than the base layer, creating an opportunity for light to react with areas of translucent red and shimmering metallic textures.
At night, the hands and hour markers are designed to look like floating fragments, seemingly levitating above the dial’s surface. The illusion stems from AWAKE’s unorthodox approach to lume application. Rather than applying lume to the surface of the indexes, AWAKE forms them from solid Super-LumiNova BGW9 and then caps each one with a faceted, polished steel overlay to create a soft backlit effect. AWAKE refers to this design element as ‘coiffe’, inspired by the Italian art technique chiaroscuro. Together with the rest of the dial furniture, most notably the floating logo at 12 o’clock, the composition feels clean and considered, delivering excellent legibility without visual excess.
AWAKE Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red – case
Similar to previous Sơn Mài watches, the new Royal Red limited edition is crafted from recycled 316L stainless steel and measures a relatively compact 39 mm that should suit the majority of potential wearers. A sapphire crystal, with anti-reflective coating, offers a clear view of the dial, while the movement is visible to the rear courtesy of the sapphire caseback. Consistent with earlier models, the case has a thickness of 11.8 mm and offers water resistance to 50 m. To complete the design, the watch is fitted with a red suede strap crafted by fellow French brand, Maison Bouveret, finished with a rubberised calfskin lining and tone-on-tone stitching.
The case is composed of brushed and polished surfaces, with curved edges gracing the bezel, case middle and lugs. The sides of the case feature horizontal brushing, contrasting with adjacent case facets.
AWAKE Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red – movement
Inside the Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red is the Calibre G101 by La Joux Perret, crafted in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The Calibre G101 is a cut above many rival movements. For example, the bridges are adorned with circular Côtes de Genève motif, it has a prodigious 68-hour power reserve and is fitted with a dense tungsten rotor for better winding efficiency.
This specially designed rotor showcases a sophisticated interplay of brushed, polished and micro-beaded textures, all framed by the engraved ring bearing the ‘Artisanship, Awakened’ mantra.
Closing remarks
The AWAKE Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red will likely appeal to those collectors who seek a timepiece imbued with a high quotient of hand craftsmanship coupled with affordability. The model’s dial is a labour-intensive landscape, skilfully crafted by artisanal hands. With no less than 15 hours of painstaking work poured into every surface, uniformity certainly yields to individuality here, as no two dials are ever quite the same, proving that hand-finished exclusivity does not always require a prohibitive price tag.
Further reading
Technical specifications
- Model: AWAKE Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Royal Red
- Case: recycled 316L stainless steel, diameter 39 mm, height 11.80 mm (with crystal), water resistance 5 ATM (50 metres), sapphire crystal to front, exhibition caseback.
- Functions: hours, minutes, centre seconds
- Movement: Automatic La Joux-Perret G101, frequency 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 24 jewels, power reserve 68 hours
- Strap: red suede with rubberized calf lining, tone-on-tone stitching. Pin buckle made from recycled 316L stainless steel
- Price: €2,200 excluding VAT (RRP as of 1.2.2026)
- Limited Edition: 100 pieces