Francis Ford Coppola wants an offer he can't refuse – for his watch.
The Oscar winner is selling seven watches from his personal collection, including his own prototype FP Journe FFC, which is estimated to be worth more than $1 million, according to a statement from New York auction house Phillips. Phillips will hold the auction on December 6th and 7th.
The sale could help offset losses from last year's box office flop Metropolis, which cost more than $120 million to make and was largely financed by the 86-year-old director. The film grossed just $14.3 million worldwide.
The film, Coppola's first since his 2011 horror film Twixt, premiered at Cannes last year to mostly negative reviews. “Times” Joshua Rothkopf called it “a hugely ambitious, exaggerated urban epic.”
At a press conference in Cannes, Coppola spoke about the huge amount of his own money he invested in the film, saying that he “never cared about money” and that his children “don't need a fortune.”
Among Coppola's watches also going under the hammer are examples from Patek Philippe, Blancpain and IWC.
But the headliner is the FP Journe FFC prototype, which features a black titanium human hand that resembles a steampunk glove and indicates the clock when the fingers are extended or retracted.
Francis Ford Coppola's custom FP Journe FFC watch displays all 12 hours with a single hand.
(Phillips)
The watch was the result of a collaboration between Coppola and master watchmaker François-Paul Journe, which began after a conversation the pair had during a visit he made to the director's Inglenook winery in Napa Valley in 2012.
Coppola asked Journe if the human hand had ever been used to keep time. This question sparked a years-long conversation in which the watchmaker tried to figure out how to indicate 12 o'clock on a dial with just five fingers.
Journe found his inspiration in Ambroise Paré, a 16th-century French barber surgeon and, in particular, an innovator in the field of prosthetic limbs, including the Le Petit Lorrain, an iron and leather prosthetic hand with hidden gears and springs that allowed the fingers to move, not unlike a watch mechanism.
“Talking to Francis in 2012 and listening to his idea of using the human hand to tell time inspired me to create a watch that I myself could never have imagined. The challenge was enormous – exactly the kind of watchmaking project I adore,” Journe said in a statement.
Journe ended up creating six prototypes and delivering Coppola's watch to him in 2021.
“I am proud to fully support the sale of these watches through Phillips to fund the creation of his artistic masterpieces in filmmaking,” he said.
Coppola first became interested in the watchmaker when he gave his wife Eleanor an FP Journe Chronomètre à Résonance watch in platinum with a white gold dial for Christmas in 2009, prompting the director to invite Journe to visit his winery in Napa.
Eleonora Coppoladocumentary filmmaker and writer, died in 2024 after 61 years of marriage. Her FP Journe watch is also included in the auction and is estimated at $120,000 to $240,000.
