Editor’s Note
A prototype F.P. Journe watch owned by director Francis Ford Coppola sold for $10.8 million at auction last week, setting a new record for the brand and becoming the most expensive timepiece sold by Phillips in the U.S. since 2017.
A prototype of the F.P. Journe “FFC” model belonging to Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola set two records at Phillips’ New York Watch Auction: XIII last week. The watch, estimated to sell for over $1 million, sold for $10.8 million to an anonymous phone bidder after 11 minutes. This makes it the most expensive watch sold by Phillips in the United States since the $17.8 million sale of Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona in 2017. It also set a world auction record for any piece by F.P. Journe and for any watch by an independent watchmaker.
The FFC is the first and only F.P. Journe timepiece whose concept originated from someone other than the brand’s founder, François-Paul Journe. Coppola and Journe collaborated on the design, which features a single hand shaped like a human hand to indicate all 12 hours using just five fingers. The idea was conceived in 2012 during a meeting at Coppola’s California winery. The mechanism was inspired by a 16th-century prosthetic hand by Ambroise Paré and took seven years to develop, resulting in a movement only 8.1 mm thick.
The FFC prototype was one of seven watches from Coppola’s personal collection offered at the auction. Coppola told The New York Times in October that he decided to sell them to recoup losses from his 2024 film “Megalopolis.” All seven watches achieved “stellar” results. For example, Coppola’s F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “FFC” sold for $584,200, nearly five times its low estimate. This watch, a 2009 Christmas gift from his wife, reportedly sparked the initial conversation with Journe about the human-hand watch.
The New York Watch Auction: XIII, held on December 6 and 7, was 100% sold by lot and totaled $43.5 million, a record total for any watch auction in U.S. history. This marks five consecutive years of white-glove live watch auctions for Phillips in New York.
