The brand was founded by Jonathan Purnell in 2006, and its history can be traced back to 1918, when Jonathon’s grandfather Cecil Purnell was injured in the First World War. Cecil was injured while fighting for Britain and was taken care of in Besançon, the home of French watchmaking. There, he became interested in Abraham-Louis Breguet’s work-the tourbillon. Decades later, Jonathan founded his own brand, dedicated to creating tourbillon timepieces in memory of his grandfather.
Fourteen years later, Purnell created 13 exclusive tourbillon movements and collaborated with Eric Coudray, one of the world’s greatest modern watchmakers. One of Coudray’s greatest achievements was the creation of the fastest three-axis tourbillon, which was named “Spherion”. The first Spherion appeared in Purnell’s Escape series, which debuted in 2017. Today, Purnell has become one of the most unique high-end watchmaking brands in the world.
Inspired by the work of his grandfather Cecil, a British watchmaker who was passionate about tourbillon watches, Jonathan Purnell founded a company named after this family in 2006 and claimed to only produce tourbillons watch.
After developing 13 tourbillon movements since its establishment, Purnell began to collaborate with the Gaïa Award-winning watchmaker Eric Coudray in 2016. Among other experience, he also worked on the development of the famous Master Gyrotourbillon 1 and Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2. Made a contribution. His tenure at Jaeger-LeCoultre.
The result of this cooperation and two years of development is the Escape II, the world’s first timepiece with two “Spherions”, the name the brand chose for its high-speed three-axis tourbillon.best price watches
Spherion consists of three cages. The inner frame containing the balance wheel rotates every 8 seconds-very fast compared to the traditional tourbillon. The secondary cage rotates every 16 seconds, while the outer cage only needs to rotate once every 30 seconds. Due to this architecture, Spherion rotates on multiple axes, and its balance wheel trajectory draws a sphere. Each Spherion is made of titanium and weighs only 0.79562 grams.
Thanks to the clever differential system, the two Spherion cages rotate in opposite directions in exactly the same path. The skeleton movement of the Escape II consists of 386 parts, beats at a frequency of 3 Hz (21,600 vph), and weighs only 15.7 grams.
It is not difficult to imagine that such a complex and dynamic mechanism requires a lot of energy, which is provided by 6 springs assembled in 4 parallel barrels (four springs are superimposed in two barrels). The power reserve is 32 hours and is indicated by the suspended moving cone mainspring sensor visible at 9 o’clock.
The majestic case has a diameter of 48 mm and a thickness of 19 mm. It uses a special one-piece sapphire crystal to show the structure of the movement and two Spherions in motion.
Purnell Escape II replica is available in special editions in grade 5 titanium, black DLC grade 5 titanium or rose gold. A variety of methods can be used to customize hand-made finishes, including anodizing, hydrography, and painting.