Worn & Wound
Awake Introduces the Son Mài Guilloché Main Collection
The evolution of Awake has been fascinating to observe over the last few years. From high concept blockchain and space inspired sports watches, the brand took a left turn into traditional craft techniques, and is now working to refine those ideas further in their latest collection. The new Son Mài Guilloché Main Collection combines the Son Mai lacquer techniques the brand has employed in previous collections with evocative, hand-applied guilloche work. These new watches also have updates to the case and dial that we imagine will carry through to further Awake releases in the pipeline. I had a chance to see these watches in person at Chronopolis in Geneva earlier this year, and then again at the Windup Watch Fair in San Francisco, and each time I came away very impressed with the dial work, which is clearly the chief selling point here. To summarize, these dials use the same “Son Mai” lacquer technique, perfected by artisans in Vietnam, that we saw the brand debut in 2024. The resulting bold, vibrant colors really carry these watches and give a very old practice a lot of modern charm. For the new collection, Awake has added guilloche to the mix. Before the lacquer finish is applied, each dial has a meticulously applied guilloche pattern engraved into the dial by traditional rose and straight line engines by craftspeople in Italy. When the lacquer finish is added later, it accentuates the guilloche in a dramatic way, highlighting the depth of the engraving and the ri...