Watch Paparazzi

Athlete Marcell Jacobs spotted wearing Purnell

On a relaxed outdoor shoot, Italian-American sprinter Marcell Jacobs — the man who stunned the athletics world by claiming the Olympic 100m gold at Tokyo 2020 — is photographed wearing what may be the most thematically apt timepiece any sprint champion could choose. On his wrist sits a piece unique Purnell Escape II in yellow ceramized titanium, its vivid colour immediately legible even at distance against his tattooed forearm.

Purnell, the Geneva-based independent manufacture founded by watchmaker Eric Loth, built its reputation entirely on the Escape One and its successor the Escape II around a single, radical complication: the double triple-axis tourbillon. Unlike a conventional tourbillon that rotates once per minute, Purnell's architecture completes a full rotation of the inner cage every two seconds, the intermediate cage every eight seconds, and the outer cage every thirty seconds. The result is a six-axis gyroscopic system that counteracts gravitational error in all orientations at unprecedented speed — hence the brand's 'fastest tourbillon on earth' claim, which holds up to technical scrutiny.

This piece unique takes the standard Escape II architecture and clothes it entirely in yellow ceramized titanium — a surface treatment that fuses ceramic particles into the titanium substrate for exceptional hardness and scratch resistance while keeping case weight low. The skeletonized dial is fully transparent, the twin tourbillon cages finished in matching yellow, with hand-polished hands and hand-applied yellow lacquer indices displaying hours, minutes and power reserve. The matching yellow rubber strap completes a wholly monochromatic execution that is bold without being gratuitous.

For collectors, the Escape II occupies a rarefied niche: a true independent manufacture complication with legitimate horological innovation, not a grandes maisons exercise in brand prestige. Piece unique commissions of this nature are handled directly with Purnell's Geneva atelier, making provenance and documentation central to any future transaction. The double triple-axis tourbillon movement, calibre PUR 3.0, is entirely in-house and hand-finished throughout.

At a retail price of $468,500, the Escape II Piece Unique is priced at the level of established grande complication watches from Patek Philippe or A. Lange & Söhne, which underscores Purnell's positioning. The Jacobs connection adds a layer of cultural narrative — speed as a shared value — that will inevitably inform the watch's auction story should it ever appear on the secondary market.