AWAKE Sơn Mài Guilloché Main Review: Two Crafts, One Dial
Two Crafts, One Dial
Every so often a microbrand release lands that reads less like a product launch and more like a quiet manifesto for the kind of watchmaking we should all be paying more attention to. The Sơn Mài Guilloché Main trilogy from AWAKE is exactly that, a small collection of three watches that braid two ancestral métiers d’art together on a single 38mm dial and somehow make the whole thing feel calm rather than busy.
AWAKE is the Paris based independent founded in 2018 by Lilian Thibault, a brand built from day one around the idea that a watch should leave the planet (and the people who made it) slightly better than it found them. The company is best known for cases made with re-engineered fishing nets, BioPoly straps drawn from castor bean oil, and a recycling programme that takes back old watches of any brand. It is the kind of provenance that earned them an NASA commission for the Mission to Earth project in 2021 and a brief from the French presidency to produce timepieces for the G7 Summit. Sustainability is the spine of the brand, but craft, increasingly, is becoming its voice. A craftsmanship that is also see all of the AWAKE watches, another clear example is the Son Mai Atlantis Blue which I’ve covered earlier in the year.
The Sơn Mài Guilloché Main collection is the loudest expression of that voice yet. Three references, three skies, two hundred numbered pieces of each, all priced at €3,180. The dial of every single one passes through Italian and Vietnamese workshops before it gets anywhere near a case, and you can read the journey on the surface if you give it a moment (which, given the lacquer, you should).
When Two Ancestral crafts meet on One Dial
The technical premise of this collection is simple to describe and very hard to execute. Each dial starts life as a brass blank that is hand engraved at the Renzetti workshop in Italy, one of the last European ateliers still practising guilloché main on historic 19th century straight-line and rose engine machines. The artisan turns the engine by hand, the blank is cut, and a geometric pattern is incised into the metal. Different references get different patterns, and because the cut is human rather than CNC, no two dials are mathematically identical.
The engraved blank then travels to Vietnam, where AWAKE works with one of the country’s most respected lacquer workshops to apply Sơn Mài. This is a centuries old craft in which the sap of the Rhus Verniciflua tree is purified, mixed with natural pigments, and brushed onto the dial in many ultra thin layers. Each layer is dried, sanded, and polished before the next goes on. Across the full process, a single dial sits with the lacquer artisans for more than fifteen hours of accumulated work.
The reason this matters in person is that the lacquer is translucent. You are not looking at a printed colour sitting on top of a guilloché pattern, you are looking through coloured glass into the engraving below. Tilt the wrist and the geometry shifts, deepens, and lights up in ways that flat painted dials can only fake. It is the closest thing to a stained glass window the microbrand world has produced this year (and yes, it loves being in the spotlight).
Three Skies on a 38mm Dial
The collection’s name has three references, and each one is built around a different time of day in the sky. Alba is the warmest of the three, a sunrise composition of fiery orange and amber over a helical guilloché that radiates outward from the centre like a slow spiral of light. It is the most extroverted dial in the trilogy and the one that picks up the widest range of colour as the angle changes.
Borealis swings the palette to the opposite end. Cool greens and electric blues flow over a radiant guilloché structure, and the effect is exactly what the name promises, a small Northern Lights show pinned to your wrist. This is the dial that benefits most from movement, since the lacquer’s depth only really resolves when the engraving below catches a different angle of light.
Sunset, the third and most painterly of the trio, uses a drapé-moiré pattern of flowing lines beneath a transition from pink into violet and then into deep blue. It is the most cinematic of the three and probably the one that reads most clearly as art on the wrist (dangerous if you are prone to wrist checking already). Across all three references the hands and applied indices are kept restrained, because the dial does not need any help.
A Case of considered Proportions
The case for this collection is a notable departure from earlier AWAKE Sơn Mài references. Where the previous generation sat at 41mm, the new Guilloché Main trilogy lands at 38mm, with a 44.75mm lug to lug and an 11.5mm thickness. That is a much more universally wearable footprint, and it makes a watch that was previously edging into statement territory feel suitable for almost any wrist between 6.5 and 7.5 inches.
The case itself is 316L stainless steel, with brushed flanks and polished accents that catch enough light to flatter the lacquer without pulling focus from it. A sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating sits flat over the dial, which is the right call for a piece that depends this much on light transmission. Water resistance is rated at 100 metres, which is unusually capable for a watch this dressy and gives the collection a credible everyday remit. You are not babying it on the way to a dinner reservation.
On the wrist the proportions are quietly addictive. The shorter lug to lug keeps the watch centred on the wrist rather than reaching, and the 11.5mm height slides under most cuffs without fuss. The numbers translate into a watch that disappears in terms of comfort but never in terms of presence.
La Joux-Perret G101 under the Hood
Powering all three references is the La Joux-Perret G101 automatic, a Swiss made calibre that has quietly become one of the most interesting independent alternatives to the usual Sellita and ETA suspects. It runs at 28,800 vph, carries a generous 68 hour power reserve, and is decorated with mainplate striping and a tungsten rotor for the rotor mass you want on an automatic this thin.
The G101 is a sensible choice for this collection on several levels. It is a Swiss independent calibre, which keeps the spec sheet honest for a watch at this price. The 68 hour reserve means the watch can sit off the wrist for a long weekend and still be running on Monday morning, which is exactly the use pattern a dress-leaning piece tends to invite. And the tungsten rotor (visible through the exhibition caseback) gives the movement enough visual weight to justify the look-through.
It is not the most decorated movement in the world at this price point, but it is consistent with the rest of the watch. The dial does the heavy storytelling, the movement quietly does its job, and the result feels balanced rather than top heavy.
Strap and Daily Life
AWAKE’s signature BioPoly strap, made from castor bean derived oil, is the natural choice for this collection and it fits the sustainability story without compromising on feel. The strap is supple from day one, takes the curve of the wrist quickly, and runs in a colour matched to each dial. AWAKE typically pairs it with a brushed pin buckle that keeps the focus on the dial rather than on hardware (and yes, it dries quickly when you forget to take the watch off in the shower).
For collectors who prefer something more traditional, the 38mm case sits at a strap width that is well served by the aftermarket, and a 20mm grey or olive textile would suit Borealis especially well. This is a watch that will collect different straps in the rotation almost by accident.
Why It’s Special
Three points in particular set this collection apart from the rest of the métiers d’art crowd at the price point.
- Two crafts on one dial: Most métiers d’art watches at this level commit to a single technique. AWAKE marries Italian hand guilloché with Vietnamese Sơn Mài lacquer on the same surface, and the interplay between the engraving and the translucent layers is the entire reason the dial works the way it does.
- Provenance you can actually verify: The Renzetti workshop and the Vietnamese lacquer atelier are both named and credited. There is no anonymous “applied finishing” copy here, and that transparency is rare at €3,180.
- A genuinely smaller case: At 38mm and 11.5mm thick, this is a métiers d’art watch that does not require a 16cm wrist to look right. Compared to most artisanal dial pieces from the larger Swiss houses, it is roughly half the diameter conversation and a quarter of the price.
- Sustainability built in, not bolted on: BioPoly strap, recycled materials elsewhere in the brand’s range, an active recycling programme. The story behind the watch matches the story on the dial.
A Slower Way to Read the Time
The Sơn Mài Guilloché Main trilogy is, in the most literal sense, a slow watch (in the BEST possible sense). The dial took fifteen hours of lacquer work. The engraving was cut by a human hand on a 19th century machine. The watch is here, on your wrist, to remind you that there are still things worth doing slowly.
At €3,180/$3,700 for a numbered piece of 200, the collection sits in an interesting spot. It is not cheap by microbrand standards, but it is genuinely affordable by métiers d’art standards, and it offers a level of craft transparency that brands at five and ten times the price routinely fail to match. If you are the kind of collector who responds to dials that change in the light and stories that hold up under scrutiny, one of these three is going to find its way to your shortlist.
Alba, Borealis, or Sunset. Pick your sky.
Specifications:
Brand – AWAKE
Model – Sơn Mài Guilloché Main (Alba, Borealis, Sunset)
Case Material – 316L stainless steel, brushed and polished
Case Dimensions – 38mm diameter, 11.5mm thickness, 44.75mm lug-to-lug
Water Resistance – 100m (10 ATM)
Strap – BioPoly (castor bean derived), 20mm, pin buckle
Crystal – Flat sapphire with anti-reflective coating
Movement – La Joux-Perret G101, Swiss automatic, 28,800 vph, tungsten rotor, mainplate striping
Power Reserve – 68 hours
Lume – Yes, on Indexes and hands – Super-LumiNova BGW9 with AWAKE luminous “coiffe” signature
Limited Edition – Yes, 200 pieces per reference, individually numbered (Batch of 50, 100 and 50)
Price – €3,180 / $3,700
Official store link here.
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About AWAKE Sơn Mài Guilloché Main: Key Questions Answered
What is Sơn Mài lacquer and why does it take so long to make?
Sơn Mài is a centuries old Vietnamese lacquer art that uses the purified sap of the Rhus Verniciflua tree, mixed with natural pigments and applied in many ultra thin layers. Each layer is dried, sanded, and polished before the next is brushed on. For the AWAKE dials, the cumulative process takes over fifteen hours per piece, and the result is a translucent surface that lets the underlying guilloché show through.
What is the difference between Alba, Borealis, and Sunset?
The three references share the same case, movement, and dial size but pair different guilloché patterns with different lacquer colour stories. Alba is a warm sunrise palette of orange and amber over a helical guilloché, Borealis runs cool greens and blues over a radiant pattern, and Sunset moves from pink to violet to deep blue over a drapé-moiré geometry. Each one is limited to 200 pieces.
How does the La Joux-Perret G101 compare to a Sellita SW200 or ETA 2824?
The G101 runs at the same 28,800 vph beat rate as a Sellita SW200 or ETA 2824 but offers a notably longer 68 hour power reserve against the 38 to 41 hours typical of those two. It is a Swiss made independent calibre with a tungsten rotor and mainplate striping, which gives the watch a more characterful exhibition caseback than the workhorse alternatives. Servicing is straightforward through any qualified Swiss movement watchmaker.
Is the Sơn Mài Guilloché Main still available to order?
At launch the collection is offered as three limited editions of 200 numbered pieces each, with the first allocation shipping in mid 2026. Availability at any given moment depends on which references AWAKE has already shipped, so checking the brand site directly is the most reliable signal. Pieces sometimes appear on the secondary market once the initial allocation ships.
Does AWAKE only sell sustainable watches?
Yes, sustainability is the founding principle of the brand. AWAKE was built around recycled and bio-based materials, runs a free watch recycling programme for old timepieces of any brand, and produced commemorative pieces for both the G7 Summit and the NASA Mission to Earth project. The Sơn Mài Guilloché Main collection extends that ethos to artisanal craft preservation.
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