After ‘Megalopolis’ flop, Francis Ford Coppola auctions his valuable watch collection

Francis Ford Coppola wants an offer he can’t refuse – in his spare time.

The Academy Award-winning director is selling seven watches from his personal collection, including his custom FP Journe FFC prototype, which is expected to sell for more than $1 million, at the New York City-based auction house, according to a statement from Phillips. Phillips will hold the auction on December 6 and 7.

Those sales could help offset heavy losses from last year’s box-office flop “Megalopolis,” which cost more than $120 million and was largely financed by the 86-year-old director. The film grossed only $14.3 million worldwide.

The film, Coppola’s first since the 2011 horror film “Twixt,” opened to largely negative reviews at Cannes last year. Joshua Rothkoff of The Times called it a “brutally clever, dense urban epic”.

At a press conference in Cannes, Coppola discussed the large amount of money he had sunk into the film, saying that he “never cared about money” and that his children “don’t need a fortune.”

Among the Coppola timepieces also going under the hammer are examples from Patek Philippe, Blancpain and IWC.

But the title piece is the FP Journe FFC prototype, which features a black titanium, human-like hand that resembles a steampunk gauntlet that tells the hours when the fingers extend or retract.

Francis Ford Coppola’s traditional FP Journe FFC timepiece uses one hand to indicate all 12 hours.

(Phillips)

The watch was a collaboration between Coppola and Masterwatch creator Francois Paul Journe that began after a conversation the pair had during a 2012 visit to the filmmaker’s Englenok Winery in Napa Valley.

Coppola asked Jorn if the human hand was used to tell time. This question led to a years-long discussion in which watchmakers discussed how to indicate the 12-hour dial using only five fingers.

Journe found his inspiration in Ambroise Parry, a 16th-century French barber-surgeon and inventor of artificial limbs, notably Le Petit Lorraine, an artificial hand made of iron and leather with hidden gears and springs that allowed the fingers to move, not unlike a watch.

“Talking to Francis in 2012 and hearing his ideas about using the human hand to tell the time inspired me to create a watch that I had never imagined myself doing. The challenge was tough – exactly the kind of watchmaking project I love,” Jorn said in a statement.

Jorn eventually built six prototypes and delivered the Coppola watch in 2021.

“I am proud to fully support the sale of this watch through Philips to fund the creation of his masterpieces in filmmaking,” he said.

Coppola first became interested in the watchmaker when he gave his wife Eleanor a FP Journe Chronomètre à Résonance silver dial in platinum for Christmas in 2009, prompting the director to invite Journe to visit him at his Napa winery.

Eleanor Coppola, documentary filmmaker and author, died in 2024 after 61 years of marriage. Her FP Journe timepiece is also part of the auction and is estimated to fetch $120,000 to $240,000.