After ‘Megalopolis’ flops, Francis Ford Coppola puts his pricey watch collection up for auction

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Francis Ford Coppola wants an offer he can’t refuse — on his timepieces.

An Academy Award-winning director is auctioning off seven watches he owns, with a unique F.P. Journe watch expected to fetch over $1 million. The auction, held by Phillips in New York City, will take place on December 6th and 7th.

Selling some assets could help offset the financial losses from the director’s recent film, “Megalopolis,” which performed poorly at the box office. The movie cost over $120 million to produce, largely funded by the 86-year-old director himself, but only earned $14.3 million worldwide.

Coppola’s latest film, his first since the 2011 horror film “Twixt,” debuted at Cannes last year but received mostly negative reactions. Joshua Rothkopf of The Times described it as a sprawling and overly complex story about a city.

Speaking at a press event in Cannes, Coppola revealed he’d invested a significant amount of his personal funds into the movie. He explained that he wasn’t concerned with financial gain, and his children didn’t require a large inheritance.

The auction of Francis Ford Coppola’s watch collection will also include pieces from renowned brands like Patek Philippe, Blancpain, and IWC.

The most notable watch is the F.P. Journe FFC Prototype, which has a unique black titanium hand shaped like a steampunk gauntlet. This hand displays the time by extending or retracting its fingers to indicate the hour.

In 2012, during a visit to Francis Ford Coppola’s Inglenook winery in Napa Valley, the filmmaker and renowned watchmaker François-Paul Journe discussed a potential collaboration, which ultimately led to the creation of this watch.

Francis Coppola once asked watchmaker François Journe if anyone had ever considered using a hand to show the time. This simple question led to a multi-year exploration for Journe, as he tried to figure out how to represent all twelve hours on a watch face using only five fingers.

Journe drew inspiration from Ambroise Paré, a French barber-surgeon from the 1500s who was a pioneer in creating artificial limbs. Paré’s work included a prosthetic hand called Le Petit Lorrain, crafted from iron and leather. This remarkable device used cleverly hidden gears and springs to allow the fingers to move, much like the inner workings of a watch.

In a statement, Journe explained that a 2012 conversation with Francis, where Francis suggested using a hand to represent time, sparked the idea for a watch he wouldn’t have otherwise conceived. He described the project as a difficult, but enjoyable, watchmaking challenge.

Journe eventually created six prototypes and delivered Coppola’s watch to him in 2021.

I’m really excited to see this watch sold through Phillips – it’s fantastic that the proceeds will directly support a filmmaker in bringing their creative vision to life. It’s a beautiful piece, but knowing the money is going towards art makes it even more special, in my opinion.

In 2009, Francis Ford Coppola gave his wife, Eleanor, a platinum F.P. Journe watch with a white gold dial as a Christmas gift. This sparked his interest in the watchmaker and led him to invite Journe to visit his winery in Napa Valley.

Eleanor Coppola, known for her work as a documentary filmmaker and writer, passed away in 2024 after being married for 61 years. Her F.P. Journe watch is also being auctioned and is expected to sell for between $120,000 and $240,000.

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2025-10-24 23:01