Awake’s Son Mai Collection Gets Three Intricate New Dials
One of the more interesting stories in the micro/independent watch scene that has matured over the last few years is Awake, a French brand that has done a lot of work to reshape their branding and presentation with their most recent releases. When we first started covering Awake, they traded in high concept ideas – watches tied to the Metaverse, and NASA, for instance. They were weird, but I always appreciated that they seemed to have a real perspective and weren’t going after the traditional watch enthusiast crowd. They always seemed happy to chart a new course. They’ve pivoted more recently, with their newer watches laser focused on traditional craft techniques, and in developing a signature design language. I was a pretty big fan of their first batch of Son Mai watches, with beautiful lacquered dials. Their latest release, the Son Mai “Fragments” collection, takes these lacquer dials to a logical next step, upping the complexity and depth along the way.
The Fragments collection consists of three watches in the standard Son Mai case with gorgeous dials accented with mother of pearl. I know what you’re thinking: not another mother of pearl dial. While I totally understand the fatigue, these watches are worth taking a look at to acknowledge the novelty of the mother of pearl execution.
Against a black lacquer base, each watch in the Fragments line consists of very small pieces of mother of pearl placed intricately on the dial surface to create a complex mosaic pattern. There are, as mentioned, three options available, in three different colors and three different mosaic textures. The green dial uses the smallest pieces of mother of pearl, packed tightly together, while the blue dial’s mother of pearl fragments are a little more robust. The purple dial, in my opinion, is the most interesting, as it spaces these fragments out in such a way that the black lacquer creates a void of sorts underneath. I had a chance to see these watches in person at Windup in New York City last month, and they’re pretty special in person.
Following on the earlier Son Mai pieces, all three of the Fragments watches use the same dial layout, which consists of hour markers made from solid blocks lume with small faceted markers made from steel placed on top, so that the glowing lume appears to emanate from underneath a solid surface. This has become a visual signature of the brand, and it’s a nice natural match for these intricate handmade dials. Larger hour markers, or traditional applied shapes or numerals might carry too much visual weight and distract from the dial material itself. This feels like a nice middle ground without having to go completely sterile. They also just look great in the dark when the lume is charged, which I imagine was likely the primary factor here from the jump.
The stainless steel cases measure 39mm across and 11.8mm thick. The lug to lug span is 45.6mm. The watches are powered by a La Joux-Perret G101 movement with 68 hours of power reserve. It’s visible through an exhibition caseback and features a custom rotor and attractive machine made decoration, but the real action, of course, is on the dial side.
Each of the three watches in the Fragments collection is a limited edition of 100 pieces, and they retail for € 2,700. Delivery for the first 50 pieces in each colorway will begin this month, with the next 50 coming in early 2026. Awake
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