This article was originally published in the July/August 2022 Issue of the WatchTime print magazine.

While still prestigious, the tourbillon has also become somewhat of a staple. Every ambitious and self-respecting brand seems to have at least one in its collection. But what about a brand that makes only watches with tourbillons" For Purnell, this complication is a way of life, so firmly believing in its precious nature that they don?t do anything else, but they do like to do it differently.

Purnell started in 2006 when Jonathan Purnell launched the very first tourbillon under his own name. The inspiration to do so came from his grandfather, Cecil Purnell, a soldier for the British armed forces, fighting on the brutal battlefields in France during World War I. After being wounded in battle, he was transported to Besançon to heal. This is where bad luck turned into good fortune, as this beautiful city, quite close to the border with Switzerland, is known as the center of French watchmaking. This had quite an impact on Cecil Purnell, and he trained there to become a watchmaker. One of the people he admired was Abraham-Louis Breguet, in particular, his ingenuity in developing a device to counter the effect of gravity on the precision of a movement: the tourbillon. While Cecil Purnell never made a watch with a tourbillon of his own, his grandson continued the quest on his behalf.
He did so with passion and determination, developing 13 tourbillon movement...