So far there are four answers to the first question of the OP: is the sign(x) function a valid function to be the derivative of the absolute value function? The answer is no, because the sign funftion is defined at $x = 0$ and the derivative is not. That is just formal mathematics, a matter of definitions.
The second question of the OP is constructive and in my opinion therefore more interesting: is there another function that can serve as the derivative? In other words, can we express the absolute value function in such a way that the derivative exist in $x = 0$?
The answer is yes. In mathematics there are several tricks one may use for this purpose.
A simple method is to use the Heaviside function to represent the absolute value function. For $x > 0$ we have $f = x$, and for $x < 0$ we have $f=-x$. Let us "glue" them together using the Heaviside function, to obtain:
$$f(x) = H(x)*x + (1-H(x))*-x$$
which we can rewrite as $$f(x) = (2*H(x) - 1) * x$$
We can now differentiate with respect to $x$ and obtain
$$f'(x) = 2*H(x) - 1 + 2x \delta (x)$$
where $\delta (x)$ is the Dirac delta function. This function holds for all values of $x$, in the sense that all mathematical operations (integration, differentiation etc) are well-defined and valid. The non-analytic behaviour of the derivative in $x = 0$ is of course still present, in the form of the second term.
Another method is to regard the abolute value function, with its sharp bend around $x = 0$, as the limit of a continuous function which is everywhere differentiable. It is not difficult at all to find such a continuous representation. Here is one:
$$ f(x) = \sqrt {x^2 + a^2}$$
where $a$ is an arbitrarily small parameter. Clearly the derivative $f'(x)$ now exists everywhere and can be used in calculations. At a suitable moment in the calculation the limit of $a$ to zero can be taken. Another choice is:
$$ f(x) = a * log[e^{x/a} + e^{-x/a}]$$
These methods are useful in applied mathematics, physics, engineering etc.