AWAKE
In 2019, at the G7 summit in Biarritz, French President Emmanuel Macron presented world leaders with a watch made from recycled fishing nets. The watch was AWAKE. Founder Lilian Thibault had spent twenty years as a collector before concluding that no brand was yet doing what he wanted to see done: métiers d’art at accessible price points, with sustainability as a structural commitment — not a marketing footnote.
What We Achieved
In 2023, AWAKE became the only independent brand to receive the Watch of the Year award in its category — competing against Cartier, Rolex, Bulgari, Breitling, Tudor and Omega. The same year, their NASA collaboration embedded a passive NFC chip in sapphire crystal, granting owners live access to International Space Station cameras.
G7 Biarritz 2019
1 Only Independent Brand
ISS NASA Collaboration 2022
Origin
Lilian Thibault founded AWAKE after two decades as a collector and entrepreneur, driven by the conviction that the watch world lacked a brand capable of combining genuine craft ambition with honest environmental responsibility. The headquarters in La Chaux-de-Fonds places AWAKE at the heart of Swiss watchmaking tradition — which it then consistently subverts.
Design Philosophy
Each AWAKE collection introduces a new material or technique at its centre. The Son Maï collection embeds centuries-old Vietnamese lacquer craft — Sơn Mài, a layered sanding process involving silver leaf gilding — into Swiss-made dials. Meteorite slices from 4.5-billion-year-old extra-terrestrial stone. Recycled aerospace titanium. The material is always the story.
The Collection
Chapter I used recycled fishing nets. Chapter III introduced the oldest meteorite known on Earth. The Son Maï collection brought Vietnamese lacquer to Swiss watchmaking in two ancestral techniques unavailable elsewhere at this price point. Each chapter is the result of Lilian Thibault (creative direction) and Benjamin (micromechanics) working with master artisans across disciplines and borders.