Francis Ford Coppola’s Watch Sells for $10.8M

A

prototype of the F.P. Journe “FFC” model belonging to Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola, who designed it in collaboration with François-Paul Journe, set two records at Phillips’ New York Watch Auction: XIII last week.

New York— Francis Ford Coppola’s personal prototype of the F.P. Journe “FFC,” a design conceived by and named for him, set two records at Phillips’ recent New York watch auction.

Estimated to sell for more than $1 million, the award-winning filmmaker’s one-of-one watch garnered $10.8 million, making it the most expensive watch sold by Phillips in the United States since its $17.8 million sale of Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona in 2017.

The FFC sold to an anonymous buyer on the phone after 11 minutes of bidding.

It set a world auction record not only for a piece by F.P. Journe but also for any watch by an independent watchmaker.

The FFC was the star of the New York Watch Auction: XIII, which took place Dec. 6 and 7 and had 144 lots.

It was 100 percent sold by lot and totaled $43.5 million, a record total for any watch auction in U.S. history.

The sale marks a streak of five consecutive years of white-glove live watch auctions for Phillips in New York, which the auction house said underscores a “robust” global market for collectors’ timepieces.

Coppola’s FFC is the first and only Journe timepiece whose idea came from someone other than the brand’s founder, François-Paul Journe, and is one of only a few watches Journe personally assembled.

Francis Ford Coppola’s name is engraved on the back of his FFC prototype. The Oscar-winning director, who now lives in Napa, California, and makes wine, directed iconic films such as “The Godfather,” “The Godfather Part II,” and “Apocalypse Now.”

After nearly a decade of discussion and conceptualizing, F.P. Journe developed the prototype, the first in history to employ the human-hand feature, according to Phillips.

Coppola and Journe together designed a single hand that could distinguish all 12 hours with just five fingers.

To develop the mechanism, Journe drew inspiration from 16th-century barber-surgeon Ambroise Paré’s prosthetic hand, nicknamed “Le Petit Lorrain.”

Crafted from iron and leather, Paré’s prosthetic featured hidden gears and springs that allowed the fingers to articulate and grasp objects, much like in watchmaking, Phillips said.

The idea for the watch came about in 2012, when, during a meeting at his California winery, Coppola asked Journe if a human hand had ever been used to indicate time.

To power the FFC’s unique hand mechanism without depleting the movement’s energy, Journe drew on his Octa caliber 1300.3 and the remontoir d’egalité. He spent seven years refining the design, resulting in a movement that is only 8.1 mm thick.

“This FFC prototype is, without question, one of the most historically significant F.P. Journe timepieces ever made,” said Paul Boutros, deputy chairman and head of watches for the Americas.

“Imagined by Francis Ford Coppola and realized by François-Paul Journe, two masters working side-by-side, it showcases what can be achieved when great creative minds collaborate, igniting the fires of ingenuity.”

The FFC prototype was one of seven watches from Coppola’s personal collection offered at the auction.

The filmmaker told The New York Times in October that he decided to sell them to recoup losses from his 2024 film “Megalopolis,” which cost more than $100 million to make but bombed at the box office.

All seven watches achieved “stellar” results, according to Phillips. 

For example, Coppola’s F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “FFC” sold for $584,200, nearly five times its low estimate.

The watch, a 2009 Christmas gift from his wife, Eleanor Coppola, is reportedly what spurred Coppola to invite Journe to his Inglenook winery in California’s Napa Valley, where the conversation about the human-hand watch started.

In a joint statement, Boutros and Isabella Proia, the head of the sale and a senior international specialist with Phillips, said: “It is clear that the admiration for Mr. Coppola and his taste in watches cannot be overstated. We are honored to have been entrusted with his collection.

“These successes, alongside extraordinary prices for Philippe Dufour’s Duality and Simplicity No. 01, as well as rare examples from Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Omega, reaffirm the strength and depth of the global market for exceptional watches.”

The full results of the watch auction can be viewed on Phillips’ website.