AWAKE Son Mai Atlantis Blue Review – Artisanship, Awakened
Artisanship, Awakened
There are brands you follow for years before you ever actually hold one of their watches, and AWAKE was exactly that for me. I had been aware of Lilian Thibault’s project since its early days, intrigued by the philosophy and the materials, but never quite in the right place at the right time to experience it properly. That changed at Micro Praha last year, where AWAKE had a table and I finally got to spend real, unhurried time with the Son Mai collection. I picked up one of the dials. I put it back. I picked it up again. The finish stopped me completely. The way silver leaf catches and diffuses light from beneath multiple coats of Vietnamese lacquer is something no photograph has ever communicated faithfully, and the Atlantis Blue, AWAKE’s latest addition to the collection, is the most striking expression of that craft yet (time well spent, you could say).
AWAKE is a French independent watchmaking brand founded in 2019 by Lilian Thibault, a 47-year-old entrepreneur whose personal relationship with watches spans more than two decades. The brand’s name is not incidental: it is a verb, an instruction, and a philosophy simultaneously. Thibault built AWAKE around the idea of drawing attention to the beauty and fragility of the Earth, using the watch as the vehicle. The brand’s trajectory in its short life has been extraordinary. Within its first year, the French government commissioned AWAKE to design the official watch gifted to heads of state at the G7 summit in Biarritz, with President Emmanuel Macron specifically citing it as a symbol of what France aspires to achieve in sustainable innovation. In 2021, a NASA collaboration followed, producing a watch with a passive NFC chip embedded directly into the sapphire crystal, offering owners access to live imagery from the International Space Station. Then, in 2023, AWAKE became the only independent brand to receive the Watch of the Year award in the €1,000 to €2,000 category, standing alongside Cartier, Rolex, Bulgari, Breitling, Tudor, and Omega in the nominations and taking home the prize. Not bad for a brand not yet five years old at the time.
In 2024, to celebrate its fifth anniversary, AWAKE reached another milestone: the launch of Son Mai, the brand’s first permanent Swiss Made collection. Named after Sơn Mài, the Vietnamese art of sanded natural lacquer, the collection represents a genuine world first, combining two Métiers d’Art disciplines within the confines of a single watch dial. Vietnamese lacquer artistry, Swiss movement engineering, and French leather craft converge in every piece, with pure silver leaf woven into the dial construction to create an effect that is as much sculpture as timekeeping. The Atlantis Blue is the newest chapter in that story.
A Brand built on Conviction
What makes AWAKE genuinely compelling in a market full of independent projects is the consistency between what Thibault says and what the watches actually deliver. The brand’s ethos, “Preserve, Innovate, Transmit,” shapes every material decision: recycled stainless steel for the cases, ancestral craft techniques sourced from their country of origin, and French regional artisans for the straps. Each watch is conceived as a space for cultural expression, a place where geographic and temporal boundaries dissolve and craft traditions from different continents become something entirely new together. That philosophy is never more tangible than when you hold an Atlantis Blue under changing light and watch the dial breathe.
Inspiration: An Ode to the Abyss
The Atlantis Blue draws its visual identity from one of history’s most enduring and captivating mysteries. The myth of Atlantis, the submerged civilization first described by Plato and debated without resolution ever since, offers AWAKE a rich imaginative canvas: depth, darkness, the threshold between what is known and what remains hidden beneath the surface. The dial is conceived as a journey downward, moving from the lighter, more comforting clarity of shallow water toward the hypnotic absolute dark of the ocean floor, inhabited by creatures and secrets that have never surfaced. It is an ode to the Atlanteans and to the centuries of explorers who have searched for them (the watch itself is only rated to 50 metres, so the real search will have to wait).
The Dial: Ten Hours per Piece
The centrepiece of every Son Mai watch is, naturally, the dial, and the Atlantis Blue pushes the craft further than any previous version in the collection. The dials are entirely handcrafted in Hanoi by master lacquerers using the traditional Vietnamese Sơn Mài technique: successive layers of natural lacquer, pure silver leaf, and natural pigments applied by hand, each layer requiring time to cure and settle before the next is added. Each single dial requires more than ten hours of focused work to reach the desired visual and emotional result. Ten hours, for one dial. In the era of mass production, that is a statement worth pausing on.
The visual effect is called “Vignette,” a term borrowed from photography and optics, where a lens defect reduces peripheral light and leaves the centre brighter. AWAKE has transformed that defect into an aesthetic intention. On the Atlantis Blue, the outer edges are deep and brooding, evoking pitch-black oceanic depths, while the centre carries a cooler, more luminous quality that draws the eye inward. The transition between tones is gradual and hypnotic, achieved through deliberate layering of multiple pigments across successive coats of lacquer. The silver leaf underneath catches ambient light in a way that feels alive, shifting as the watch moves on the wrist. It is the kind of thing that earns the word “mesmerising” without any exaggeration, and it is precisely what stopped me at the AWAKE table in Prague.
The luminous signature adds yet another dimension. Rather than applying Super-LumiNova BGW9 directly to the hands and indices in the conventional manner, AWAKE developed its exclusive “coiffe” construction: the lume material forms a thin but structurally robust base, which is then capped with a layer of polished, faceted steel. In daylight, the result is restrained and elegant, with the metallic surface reflecting light rather than competing for attention. In darkness, the backlighting effect takes over, and the lume glows from behind the steel cap with remarkable depth, drawing inspiration from the Japanese aesthetic of chiaroscuro and its interplay of concealment and revelation. It is subtle in the best possible sense, and it is spectacular (the kind of thing that makes you turn the lights off the moment you are alone).
Case and Dimensions: Purposeful Proportions
The case is crafted from 316L recycled stainless steel, measuring 39mm in diameter with a lug-to-lug distance of 45.6mm and a total thickness of 11.80mm including the crystal (10.90mm without). These are balanced proportions that sit with genuine presence on the wrist without dominating it. The use of recycled steel for both the case and the buckle is a deliberate expression of the brand’s responsible manufacturing philosophy rather than a marketing footnote. Water resistance stands at 5 ATM (50 metres), which handles everyday wear with confidence. The sapphire crystal on the front carries an anti-reflective treatment for clarity, and the screw-down caseback features its own sapphire window offering a view of the movement and the custom rotor beneath.
Movement: The G101 at Its Best
Powering the Atlantis Blue is the La Joux-Perret G101 automatic caliber, a movement that collectors of independent watches may already recognise from pieces like the Straum Jan Mayen Basalt, where it earned considerable praise for its finishing and reliability. The G101 is a time-only automatic with a 68-hour power reserve, meaning no date complication to interrupt the extraordinary visual work happening on the dial side (a restraint that feels very much like the right call here).
AWAKE has made the movement genuinely its own through a custom tungsten oscillating weight that is worth examining closely through the caseback. Sandblasted, polished, and micro-blasted surfaces create a complex interplay of light across the rotor’s face, elevating it from functional component to display piece. A laser-engraved ring frames the rotor assembly, bearing the version-specific markings alongside the brand’s motto: Artisanship, Awakened. These are exactly the kinds of details that separate watches built to be worn from watches built to be looked at from every angle.
Strap: Franche-Comté Craft on the Wrist
The Atlantis Blue ships on a “Peacock” blue suede calfskin strap, handcrafted by the master leatherworkers at Bouveret in Franche-Comté, a region historically at the heart of French watchmaking tradition. The strap undergoes more than 60 individual production steps, including tone-on-tone stitching and a rubberized calfskin lining that adds suppleness while improving resistance to moisture and daily wear. At 20mm at the lug tapering to 16mm at the pin buckle, the proportions are classic and comfortable. The suede texture and peacock blue tone complement the oceanic depth of the dial with a cohesion that feels considered rather than convenient.
Why Atlantis Blue Is Special
The Son Mai Silver Leaf Atlantis Blue offers a genuinely distinct proposition in the current independent watchmaking landscape. Here is what sets it apart:
- Artisanal authenticity: each dial represents over ten hours of individual handwork by Vietnamese master lacquerers in Hanoi, making genuine uniqueness an intrinsic part of every piece rather than a marketing claim.
- Cross-cultural craft integration: French creative vision, Swiss movement engineering, Vietnamese Sơn Mài lacquer technique, and French regional leatherwork are not merely referenced here but materially present in every component of the watch.
The coiffe lume innovation: the backlighting construction is a proprietary technical achievement that rethinks what luminous material can do inside a watch, adding visual depth rather than simply improving legibility in the dark.
Intentional rarity: 100 individually numbered pieces, delivered in two batches across April and May 2026, creates genuine scarcity without the artificial inflation common in the limited-edition category.
Value built into the object: at €2,000 excluding VAT, the asking price reflects the accumulated cost of genuine handcraft, a manufacture movement, recycled steel construction, and French-made straps rather than the cost of a name.
A Watch that Earns your Attention
The AWAKE Son Mai Silver Leaf Atlantis Blue earns its price not through borrowed prestige or established legacy but through the sheer weight of genuine craft invested in every component. Lilian Thibault has built a brand that uses the watch as a vehicle for something larger than timekeeping: cultural preservation, artistic innovation, and a more intentional relationship with the objects we carry daily. For collectors who prize depth over recognition and craft over convention, the Atlantis Blue is one of the most thoughtfully composed pieces at this price point in the current independent market. Only 100 exist, and after seeing AWAKE at Micro Praha, I would not hesitate for a second.
Specifications:
Brand – AWAKE
Model – Son Mai Silver Leaf “Atlantis Blue”
Case Material – 316L recycled stainless steel
Case Dimensions – 39mm diameter, 45.6mm lug-to-lug, 20mm lug width, 11.80mm thick (incl. crystal) / 10.90mm (excl. crystal)
Water Resistance – 5 ATM (50M)
Strap – “Peacock” blue suede calfskin with rubberized calf lining, tone-on-tone stitching, pin buckle (20-16mm), handcrafted by Bouveret, Franche-Comté
Crystal – Sapphire glass with anti-reflective treatment
Movement – La Joux-Perret G101 automatic, 68-hour power reserve; custom tungsten oscillating weight with sandblasted, polished, and micro-blasted finishes; laser-engraved encircling ring
Limited Edition – Yes, 100 individually numbered pieces
Power Reserve – 68 hours
Price – €2,000 excluding VAT
Official store link here.
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About AWAKE Son Mai Atlantis Blue: Key Questions Answered
How is the Atlantis Blue dial actually made, and why does it take so long?
Each Atlantis Blue dial is entirely handcrafted in Hanoi by master lacquerers using the Vietnamese Sơn Mài technique, a centuries-old art of sanded natural lacquer. The process involves applying successive layers of pure silver leaf, natural lacquer, and natural pigments by hand, with each layer requiring time to cure before the next is added. The “Vignette” gradient effect, which pulls the eye from the deep, shadowy edges toward the luminous centre, is achieved by carefully combining multiple pigments and building up the lacquer with precision. In total, crafting a single dial requires more than ten hours of focused individual work, which is precisely why every finished piece feels genuinely different from the next.
What movement does the Atlantis Blue use, and is it a good one?
The watch is powered by the La Joux-Perret G101 automatic caliber, a Swiss manufacture movement with a 68-hour power reserve and no date complication, keeping the dial entirely free for the lacquer work to breathe. The G101 is well regarded in the microbrand space for its reliability, finishing quality, and comfortable power reserve. AWAKE has added its own custom tungsten oscillating weight, decorated with a combination of sandblasted, polished, and micro-blasted surfaces, and framed by a laser-engraved ring bearing the brand’s motto. It is visible through the sapphire crystal caseback, and it genuinely rewards a closer look.
How limited is the Atlantis Blue, and when can I get one?
The Atlantis Blue is a strictly limited edition of 100 individually numbered pieces, split into two delivery batches: the first 50 pieces ship in April 2026, and the remaining 50 in May 2026. Once those 100 pieces are gone, that is it. There are no reissues planned for this specific reference. The watch is available directly through AWAKE at awakewatches.com, with a selection of authorised retailers also listed on their website. At €2,000 excluding VAT, and with only 100 pieces in existence, it is the kind of release worth acting on rather than watching.
