Cecil Purnell is all about tourbillons.

The company is named after Cecil Purnell, a World War I veteran who studied watchmaking after being injured during the war and quickly became fascinated by Abraham-Louis Breguet and the tourbillon. Purnell was founded decades later in the mid-2000s by Cecil’s grandson, Jonathan Purnell.

The present Spherion Tourbillon features the world’s fastest triple-axis tourbillon, which completes a full 360-degree rotation in eight seconds. The movement inside the Spherion Tourbillon was developed in partnership with the award-winning watchmaker Eric Coudray, who previously brought to life impressive tourbillon creations such as the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon.

The inner tourbillon cage of the Spherion completes more than seven rotations every minute, while the inner, middle, and outer tourbillon cages complete their individual rotation in eight seconds, 16 seconds, and 30 seconds, respectively. All cages are made of lightweight titanium, and the clearance between each individual cage is under 0.2mm. It took Coudray and Purnell more than two years to bring the Spherion Tourbillon to life.

But the mechanics were just the start of the Spherion’s development. The unique three-dimensional architecture of Purnell’s triple-axis tourbillon created difficulties in finding the right case and sapphire crystal to house and best display the innovative CP.01 movement. Conventional suppliers of sapphire crystals turned Purnell away. When a sapphire crystal manufacturer willing to take the small-batch project on was finally found, it took an additional 14 months of work to finalize.

In addition to sapphire crystal protecting the front and back of the watch, there’s an additional sapphire crystal window in the left caseband as well as at 12 and 6 o’clock, allowing an unobstructed view of the triple-axis tourbillon in action.