Oan.gio
Nghia Nguyen Dai spent six years overseeing production and innovation at a prominent French luxury watch brand before leaving with no clear plan. Born in Vietnam, raised in France from age two, he had been quietly building a network of artisans — lacquer craftspeople in Vietnam, guilloché ateliers in Italy, engravers in China, enamel artists in Georgia, Urushi masters in Japan — across years of industry travel. When his wife reminded him of the dream he had carried longest, Oan.gio became the vehicle for all of it. The name combines “Oanh” (his wife’s name and a phonetic echo of “one”) with “gio” — time, or hour, in Vietnamese.
What We Achieved
Oan.gio’s Ginkgo — a hand-engraved debut piece — was nominated for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). For a brand launched in 2024 with five pieces per model, entry into the GPHG is not just recognition. It is the official acknowledgement that the craft standard is real.
5 Pieces Per Model
GPHG Nominated · Ginkgo Prestige
9+ Countries of Artisan Partners
Origin
After six years managing production for a French luxury brand, Nghia understood exactly what it took to produce something genuinely fine — and exactly what most brands chose not to do. Oan.gio exists because he chose not to take those shortcuts. His brother, who trained at Rolex as a product designer, contributes the technical rigour. His wife contributed the conviction to begin.
Design Philosophy
Each Oan.gio collection is built around a single artisan or craft tradition: Vietnamese Sơn Mài lacquer (layered, sanded, polished over weeks to achieve a depth that photographs cannot capture), Japanese Urushi and Raden shell inlay with artist Keisuke Sano, hand engine-turned guilloché from the century-old Renzetti family atelier in Milan. Movements are Swiss ETA 6498-2, fully refinished and decorated by a Glashütte specialist. The ETA is not the point. The dial is.
The Collection
The inaugural series: Ultragrey (rose engine guilloché, ruthenium movement), Celestial Sea and Fire Dusk (Vietnamese lacquer over nacre), Ginkgo (hand-engraved). The Wajima Collection pairs Japanese Urushi lacquer dials with upcycled vintage kimono fabric straps by Thai studio Adiantes. The Renzetti collaboration introduces Pantheon-inspired concentric guilloché. Each collection is five pieces or fewer. All are purchased by request directly through Nghia.