Awake - Frosted Leaf Royal Red
AWAKE Explores Time, Colour, and Craft with the Royal Red Frosted Leaf
Some watches are designed to impress at a glance. Others ask you to slow down. AWAKE’s latest release firmly belongs in the latter camp.
Expanding its Frosted Leaf collection, the brand has unveiled Royal Red, a limited edition of just 100 pieces that leans heavily into symbolism, material experimentation, and traditional craft. It’s not simply a new colourway, but a considered evolution of the ideas that have shaped AWAKE’s identity over recent years.
At the heart of the watch lies a dialogue between red and gold, two colours that have carried cultural and spiritual weight across civilizations for centuries. Red has long been associated with vitality, passion, and creative force. Gold, by contrast, speaks to light, wisdom, and continuity. Royal Red brings these ideas together on a dial that feels less manufactured and more cultivated.
The visual impact comes from AWAKE’s ongoing exploration of Vietnamese Sơn Mài lacquerwork, an ancient craft traditionally used in ceremonial objects and fine art. Each dial is produced entirely by hand in the brand’s Hanoi workshop, using a painstaking, layered process that involves natural pigments, lacquer, and precious metal leaf applied in successive stages.
What sets Royal Red apart is a technical shift in how that process is executed. For the first time, silver leaf infused with copper-toned pigments forms the final visible layer of the dial, rather than sitting beneath the lacquer. This reversal allows light to interact directly with the metal, creating depth, texture, and subtle variation that changes depending on angle and illumination. No two dials are identical, and that individuality is very much the point.
The result is a surface that feels alive rather than static. The textures are organic, the tones complex, and the finish impossible to fully capture in photographs. It’s the kind of dial that rewards patience, revealing new details the longer you look. With each dial taking almost 15 hours to complete, it highlights the dedication to the cause.
AWAKE has also taken a restrained approach to luminescence. Instead of dominating the dial, the brand’s proprietary “coiffe” luminous signature is designed to quietly underline the artisan’s work. Inspired by the Japanese concept of chiaroscuro, the lume remains subtle during the day and emerges gently in low light, backlighting the relief of the lacquer rather than overpowering it. It’s less about brightness and more about atmosphere.
Mechanically, Royal Red is powered by the La Joux-Perret G101 automatic movement, chosen for its reliability and modern specifications, including a 68-hour power reserve. The movement is visible through the caseback and features a custom tungsten rotor developed exclusively for AWAKE, combining polished, brushed, and micro-beaded finishes. An engraved ring encircles the rotor, detailing the edition and carrying the brand’s guiding principle: Artisanship, Awakened.
Sustainability and longevity also play a role in the broader design. The case and buckle are produced from recycled stainless steel, while the straps are made from red suede calfskin, handcrafted by Maison Bouveret in France. Each strap undergoes more than 60 individual steps, prioritising comfort, durability, and resistance to wear. Rubberised lining and tone-on-tone stitching ensure the straps age gracefully alongside the watch itself.
At a price of €2,200 excluding taxes, Royal Red occupies an interesting position in the market. Handcrafted lacquer dials, small-scale artisanal production, Swiss movements, and custom finishing are rarely found together at this level. The value proposition is not driven by specification alone, but by the emotional and cultural weight of the object.
As for dimensions, a 39mm 316L recycled stainless steel case, with a short lug-to-lug of onle 45.6mm and lug width of 20mm. At just under 12mm too, will slip under the cuff nicely.
For AWAKE, watches are not simply tools for measuring time. They are vehicles for storytelling, cultural exchange, and preservation. Since introducing Sơn Mài to its work in 2024, the brand has consistently framed the dial as a canvas, a place where heritage techniques can be carried forward and reinterpreted for a modern audience.
In a market increasingly obsessed with specs, hype cycles, and manufactured scarcity, Royal Red feels refreshingly unconcerned with playing that game. It isn’t trying to win on paper, and it certainly isn’t designed to shout for attention across a room. Instead, it asks something rarer of its wearer: time, curiosity, and a willingness to engage with craft on its own terms. This is a watch that makes sense only if you care about how things are made, why they’re made that way, and what gets lost when speed replaces intention. For those collectors, Royal Red isn’t just another limited edition, it’s a quiet reminder that modern watchmaking still has room for patience, poetry, and purpose.