{"id":340997,"date":"2025-12-12T21:33:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/som2nynetwork.com\/aerospace\/francis-ford-coppola-sells-luxury-watches-for-millions-following-losses-from-megalopolis\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T21:33:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:33:39","slug":"francis-ford-coppola-sells-luxury-watches-for-millions-following-losses-from-megalopolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/som2nynetwork.com\/?p=340997","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ford Coppola Sells Luxury Watches for Millions Following Losses From ‘Megalopolis’"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The filmmaker\u2019s custom F.P. Journe watch, which he helped design in 2014, brought in nearly $11 million at auction<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n

\n

Ella Feldman<\/a><\/p>\n

– Daily Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\"FFC\n <\/picture>
\n

The watch by\u00a0F.P. Journe that sold for almost $11 million, including fees
\n Phillips<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It took 11 minutes of bidding for Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s custom watch to sell for nearly $11 million.<\/p>\n

The one-of-a-kind\u00a0F.P. Journe<\/a> watch, which Coppola helped design, sold to an anonymous phone bidder for $10.8 million including fees at Phillips<\/a>\u2019 New York auction. It became the sixth-most-expensive watch to sell at auction\u2014and the only one on that list that wasn\u2019t made by Patek Philippe or Rolex, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u2019 Jacob Bernstein reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe importance of this watch, which represents the ultimate creative collaboration between two of the greatest minds in cinematic and horological history, cannot be overstated,\u201d Paul Boutros, deputy chairman and head of watches for the Americas at Phillips, tells the\u00a0Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Lexi Carson.<\/p>\n

Known as the FFC, the watch was designed by Coppola and F.P. Journe, a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, in 2014. The custom timepiece features a gloved hand with fingers that change poses depending on the hour, and an openwork design, meaning that the mechanical inner workings of the watch are visible. Only a few FFC watches exist, including a prototype that sold in 2021 for nearly $5 million.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1999 by watchmaker Fran\u00e7ois-Paul Journe, the award-winning Geneva-based F.P. Journe has become one of the world\u2019s most sought-after luxury watch brands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinary price,\u201d Andrew Shear, a secondary market dealer, tells the Times <\/em>of the FFC sale. \u201cBut the Journe market is on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coppola, who directed\u00a0The Godfather<\/em><\/a> and\u00a0Apocalypse Now<\/em><\/a>, is himself a fan of Journe\u2019s work. \u201cI think his watches are little works of art,\u201d he told\u00a0Hodinkee<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Logan Baker in 2021. \u201cI\u2019ve always had an admiration for art and scientific ingenuity. F.P. Journe watches seem to me to be masterpieces of design and engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Quick fact: How much money did The Godfather<\/i> make?<\/h4>\n

During its original release in 1972, the film grossed around $250 million<\/a> worldwide.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It was Coppola\u2019s idea to create a timepiece that told time with a single hand. \u201cI absolutely did not think it was a particularly original idea,” the filmmaker told Hodinkee<\/em>. But, he added, Journe \u201cdid some research on it and he couldn’t find a reference to any timepiece using a single hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest FFC sale took place a little over a year after the theatrical release of\u00a0Megalopolis<\/em><\/a>, the retrofuturist science-fiction drama written, directed and financed by Coppola himself. The $120 million project had been 40 years in the making and had undergone hundreds of rewrites, as\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u2019<\/a>s Zack Sharf reported in 2024. The film was a critical and box office disappointment, grossing $14.4 million\u2014just a sliver of its budget.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Megalopolis (2024) Official Trailer – Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n