By Brent Robillard
At this year’s Toronto Timepiece Show, two Frenchmen stood quietly behind a display of watches unlike any others in the room. For many Canadian collectors, it was their first encounter with Awake—a young brand founded by Lilian Thibault and carried forward with the help of his longtime friend and business partner, Thibaut Sacré, Director of Sales and Business Development.
And now, those same collectors are unlikely to forget it: on Saturday evening, Awake won a Timepiece World Award in the Jewellery and Artistic Craft category. It was the inaugural edition of the awards, judged by seasoned industry experts—a fitting recognition for a maison intent on reshaping how we think about time.
As fortune would have it, we sat down for coffee with Thibault and Sacré just hours before the show opened where they shared their philosophy and outlook on watches. At that moment, of course, neither had any idea what the weekend had in store for Awake.
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From Colleagues to Co-Creators
Though their titles suggest clear-cut roles, the reality is more fluid. “We spend so much time together,” Sacré jokes, “that sometimes it feels more like a marriage.” That easy camaraderie belies a deeper alignment in values. Awake, they insist, is not simply another watch company. It is a philosophy translated into three centimetres of steel and sapphire.
Thibault first crossed paths with Sacré years ago, when both were working in different corners of the watch industry. When the time came to build Awake, Thibault knew he needed a partner who could not only sell watches but also understand the greater story behind them. The answer, suggested unanimously by his peers, was Sacré.
“I had something I wanted to pursue,” Thibault recalls. “Not just a brand, but a way to share values through watchmaking. When I reached out to Thibaut, he immediately understood what I meant.”
The two began shaping a company that would challenge conventional thinking: watches as more than objects of status, but as vessels of meaning.
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A Philosophy Woven Into Time
At the core of Awake is a simple yet profound question: how do we use our time? Their watches are reminders to reflect on that question—not only in terms of daily hours, but in how humanity treats the planet and the traditions it inherits.
“Our mission is in the name itself,” says Thibault. “Awake is about raising attention to what we love, what we want to preserve, and what we want to transmit.”
That philosophy took tangible form early on through a collaboration with NASA. Awake produced a watch with NFC technology that granted direct access to satellite images of Earth, echoing the astronauts’ reflections on the fragility of our planet when viewed from space.
The same principle drives their most recent projects. Rather than producing watches by the thousands, Awake works with artisans whose skills are rooted in centuries-old traditions. “When someone dedicates their life to mastering a craft, that knowledge must be preserved and passed on,” Sacré explains. “We want to help keep those traditions alive—and give them new meaning.”
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The Sơn Mài Connection
One of the most vivid examples of this philosophy is Awake’s Sơn Mài collection. Seventeen years ago, Thibault traveled through Vietnam and encountered a lacquer painting that has hung in his home ever since. He was struck not only by its beauty but by the technique itself—a painstaking layering of natural lacquer, polished between each coat, often accented with gold or silver leaf.
“I had never seen this method used in watchmaking,” he says. “It stayed in my mind for years. Eventually, we found artisans in Vietnam who were still practicing the tradition, though mostly for furniture and fine art. They had never made a watch dial before.”
The challenge was immense. Lacquer techniques usually cover large wooden surfaces; to scale them down to a dial barely three centimetres wide required nearly two years of experimentation. But the artisans welcomed the opportunity. “They told us, ‘No one has done this before—so of course we want to try,’” Thibault remembers.
The result was not just a watch, but a living bridge between cultures and generations. Each dial carries within it both the patience of Vietnamese lacquerwork and the modern desire to find new forms of expression in watchmaking.
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Craft in a Digital Age
What sets Awake apart is not only the final product but the way people respond to it. At shows, Thibault and Sacré often notice something shift in the expressions of those who hear the story behind the dials.
“Many people tell us it reminds them of something they used to do with their hands—woodworking, painting, drawing—that they’ve forgotten,” Sacré says. “In a world where so much of life happens on screens, these watches reconnect people with craft, with the idea of creating something lasting.”
For Awake, this emotional response is the true measure of success. “Every day we work to create emotions,” says Thibault. “A nice watch is not enough—you can find those everywhere. What matters is whether it awakens something in you.”
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Looking Ahead
Toronto marked Awake’s first Canadian appearance, and the reception confirmed their instincts. Collectors were eager not just to see the watches but to experience them in person, to catch the shifting play of light on the lacquer and silver leaf.
For Thibault and Sacré, this is only the beginning. They dream of bringing together artisans from around the world—Vietnamese lacquer masters, Italian engravers, Portuguese enamelers—to collaborate across traditions and create objects that embody a global spirit of preservation.
“Beauty is everywhere,” Sacré reflects. “You only have to look for it, to listen to it, to give it time. That’s what Awake is about—helping people make much of their time, and to carry those values with them on their wrist.”
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I had a chance to see their watches at the Toronto show. You need to see them in person to understand. Incredible.
That pic of the Golden Hour… Good Lord. Beautiful watch.