Cecil Purnell, a soldier enlisted during WWI by Great Britain was wounded and cured in Besançon, the cluster of French watchmaking. Trained by the best local master watchmakers, Cecil Purnell became fascinated by the legendary Abraham-Louis Breguet works and more specifically with the tourbillon wonder; a passion transmitted many decades later to his beloved grandson Jonathan Purnell.
In 2006 the brand was born with the promise of Jonathan Purnell to only produce tourbillon watches honoring his grandfather Cecil Purnell.
After developing 13 exclusive manufacture tourbillon calibers since its foundation in 2006, Purnell in 2016 started to collaborate with Eric Coudray, one of the greatest watchmakers of our time, winner of the Gaia prize for his innovative mastery of watchmaking. Coudray’s ultimate achievement is the fastest triple axis tourbillon named “Spherion”, a terminology deemed to be part of the horological vocabulary in the future.
The first Spherion has been initially presented within the Escape I collection - in 2017.
It took 2 years to develop and manufacture the Escape II – with the first prototype watches ready end of 2019 for a global launch starting in 2020.
The Swiss brand Purnell, is considered today one of the most exclusive high-end watchmaking brands.
Source: Purnell Watches