A couple of things you might not know about Michael Jordan: The GOAT co-owns a NASCAR team and absolutely loves his watches. (And we mean really loves ‘em—we’re talking about a man who got on the Datograph train well over 20 years ago.)
Those two disparate worlds collided this week when MJ was spotted celebrating his 23XI team’s latest victory at the GEICO 500 with a rare, ludicrously expensive timepiece on his wrist: the Purnell Escape II Absolute Sapphire Blue Moon. Purnell, a Genevan producer of “hyperwatches” (for lack of a better word), makes the horological equivalents of a Pagani Utopia—technically proficient and aesthetically wild, they represent the pinnacle of forward-thinking haute horlogerie.
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The Escape II Absolute Sapphire Blue Moon is built around the Spherion, a Purnell take on the triple-axis tourbillon, and the fastest-revolving tourbillon in the world. (The tourbillon, you may recall, was invented by horological genius Abraham-Louis Breguet in the late 18th century to counteract the effects of gravity on a pocket watch movement. Today, it’s used as an indication of savoir-faire and watchmaking competency in wristwatches, even though a wristwatch—which is worn in multiple positions throughout the day by virtue of its design—effectively negates the very need for such a mechanism.)
Within the Escape II Absolute Sapphire Blue Moon, a limited edition housed in a 48-millimeter blue sapphire case, are two Spherions, each of which features a titanium cage set with 152 tiny, brilliant-cut diamonds. The tourbillon axes rotate at 8, 16, and 30 seconds, making for a mesmerizing visual dance, while the manually-wound movement offers 32 hours of power reserve, as indicated by a display at 9 o’clock. Below 12 o’clock, meanwhile, is the main time display, whose indices consist of baguette-cut blue sapphires.
The watch was visible on the wrist of a thrilled Jordan as he hoisted winning 23XI driver Tyler Reddick’s young son, Beau, in the pit, asking him if he was going to celebrate his dad’s win. MJ, a respected collector, has long rocked some of the world’s most notable timepieces, including the early aforementioned A. Lange & Söhne Datograph, a diamond-studded, gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, the sci-fi-esque Urwerk UR-220, and the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Pirelli.
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