Some things you might not know about Michael Jordan: The GOAT co-owns a NASCAR team and absolutely loves his watches. (And we mean it. Really Loves them – we’re talking about a man who fell for it. Datograph train 20 years ago.)
Those two different worlds collided this week when MJ was spotted celebrating his 23XI team’s latest victory at the GEICO 500 with a rare, ridiculously expensive timepiece on his wrist: the Purnell Escape II Absolute Sapphire. Blue moon. Purnell, the Genevan producer of “hyperwatches” (for lack of a better word), creates the horological equivalent of a Pagani utopia – technically masterful and aesthetically wild, they represent the pinnacle of forward thinking. High quality watchmaking.
The Escape II Absolute Sapphire Blue Moon is built around the Spherion, a Purnell triple axis tourbillon rival, and the fastest rotating tourbillon in the world. (The tourbillon, you may recall, was invented in the late 18th century by the horological genius Abraham-Louis Breguet to counteract the effects of gravity on a pocket watch movement. skill and watchmaking capabilities in wristwatches, although a wristwatch—which by its design is worn in multiple positions throughout the day—effectively negates the need for such a mechanism.)
Inside the Escape II Absolute Sapphire Blue Moon, a limited edition is housed in a 48mm blue sapphire case. give Spherions, each containing a titanium cage set with 152 small, brilliant-cut diamonds. The tourbillon axes rotate at 8, 16 and 30 seconds, creating a mesmerizing visual dance, while the manually wound movement offers a 32-hour power reserve, as displayed at 9 o’clock. appears. Below 12 o’clock, meanwhile, is the main time display, whose indexes are set in baguette-cut blue sapphires.
The watch was visible on an excited Jordan’s wrist as he waved winning 23XI driver Tyler Reddick’s young son Beau into the pits to ask him if he was going to celebrate his father’s win. MJ, a respected collector, has long rocked some of the world’s most remarkable timepieces, including the aforementioned A. Lange & Söhne Datograph, a diamond-encrusted, gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, sci -fi-esque Urwerk UR-220, and the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Pirelli.
Credit : www.gq.com
