Cecil Purnell

“Here at Cecil Purnell, each timepiece we create is a testament to the pursuit of perfection created to endow its owners with a lifetime of pleasure and saticfaction.

In the last two years, we have bestowed collectors the world over with hundreds of Cecil Purnell timepieces. We believe that Cecil Purnell’s current line of Tourbillon, allows passionate timekeepers the world over to access this classic for the first time.

We continually strive to improve on quality, diversity of product and product materials. Our development has extended to delivery of such complex and unique movements such as the single-axis day-date power reserve Tourbillon. We feel that Breguet would be very proud indeed.”

Jonathan Purnell
Chairman & CEO

Passionate in his love for watches as a collector and adept technician, Cecil Purnell was fascinated with mechanical movements. He shared great appreciation for various complications, being truly enamoured with Tourbillon. In his honour, and in homage to true mechanical classics, Cecil Purnell is a small specialty house who is at present determined to maintain its focus to the manufacture of Tourbillon, delivering a diverse available line; including centre hand, day date power reserve, regulateur, skeleton in sportif and elegant, as well as classical timepieces. We are also one of few to offer ladies Tourbillon.

It requires someone truly extraordinary to inspire others to pursue their dream years later. Cecil Purnell was a fine gentleman with a gifted sense for classic timepieces. We stand very proud of our heritage.

Cecil Purnell’s passion arose at the heart of the industry nearly a century ago. It would be during his convalescing period in Besançon in the early twentieth century that he became enamoured with timepieces. Beginning a personal collection, he became passionate of their movements and studied watch-making techniques, frequenting La Vallée Des Joux.

As his greater understanding for the art developed, he was inspired to becoming an adept technician in repair and modification of watch movements. From the beginning, he had grown a particular fascination and appreciation for Abraham Louis Breguet’s Tourbillon.

Through the later stages of his life, he uncovered little about his passion for watches. It would come in his young grandson and co-founder: Jonathan Purnell, that he shared his passion, igniting a flame in him towards fine watches.

A destination to renowned watch collector and fine gentleman, Cecil Purnell left us with his legacy, a truly special gift and love for fine timepieces. In what will approach a century in the making, we wish to fulfil Cecil Purnell’s dream and bring you his most esteemed mechanical movements beginning with his beloved, the Tourbillon by Cecil Purnell, a true statement and timeless mechanical classic.

Lifetime partners Stephane Valsamidis and Jonathan Purnell, sharing more than half a century of combined experience in the industry, re-enkindled a dream, bridging early sketches of Mr. Purnell’s adapted flying Tourbillon movement into today’s Cecil Purnell Tourbillon.

Cecil Purnell’s passion lives on today: our greatest appreciation is realized by naming these timepieces in his honour.

Cecil Purnell is currently focused on delivering our line of Tourbillons. The Tourbillon movement served as a stepping-stone in accuracy among mechanical watch movements centuries ago and as such is the most sought after by aficionados of fine timepieces. It is still today regarded as a timeless mechanical classic among watch collectors the world over.

First invented in 1795 by Abraham Louis Breguet, he was awarded a patent for it in 1801 under the name “Regulator A Tourbillon”. Breguet realized inaccuracies in ordinary movements arose because of the effects of gravity on the balance varies depending on the over a given period of time, normally a minute, to average out the effects of gravity, creating the most accurate mechanical watch ever.

There are three versions of what is classified as one-minute Tourbillon movements:

• Open-Cage Escapement

• Closed-Cage Escapement

• Flying Tourbillon

Cecil Purnell operates the “Ebauches” Flying Tourbillon, which we feel is the most visually appealing, casting the rotating movement through the main dial with a cut out section in the rear to add light and enhance the beauty of the rotating parts. Every Cecil Purnell Tourbillon timepiece is a very limited edition run with each run bearing a unique combination of materials and dial design.