Purnell built its name on one watchmaker's tourbillons — and never gave him the equity

Jonathan Purnell founded Cecil Purnell SA in Switzerland's Jura mountains in 2006, naming it for his grandfather, a British soldier who settled in Besançon after the First World War and learned watchmaking there. The brand's first thirteen in-house tourbillon calibers went nowhere — some were, in the trade press's words, later disputed over their true origin.

The turnaround came when watchmaker Éric Coudray joined the project and designed the Spherion, a high-velocity triple-axis tourbillon that became Purnell's signature. On the strength of it the brand relaunched around "tourbillon watches only, always," partnered with France Football to make the Ballon d'Or trophy's watch in 2021, became AS Monaco's official timekeeper in 2022, and collaborated with streetwear label READYMADE the same year.

None of it was underwritten by an ownership stake for the man whose engineering carried the brand. Coudray has since said the arrangement left him "financially drained": hundreds of hours of work were supposed to convert into shares in the company, and never did. Purnell's Geneva office on Rue du Rhône sat unused for months before a Swiss court dissolved the company in December 2024, closing an eighteen-year venture that had real technical achievements and no durable business under them.