My first exposure to Awake came in 2024 at Geneva Watch Days. It was one of those moments when I had the privilege of simultaneously meeting the founder, Lilian Thibault, and discovering the watches all at once – getting to learn about the designs directly from the person who developed them. This was around the time the brand was really catching its stride after being more experimental with its collections through its first few years of business. This was when Awake really began tapping into what has now become its signature design language, which is largely centered around artistic craft techniques – if you’ve been reading my stories for a while now, you know this immediately pulled at my heartstrings.

The technique Awake has chosen to focus on comes from Thibault’s travels to Vietnam, and it’s called Son Mai. As a refresher, this lacquer method is one of the oldest traditional arts in Vietnam, dating back several millennia.…