There are decades that deliver pieces of film and music history every year, collectibles for movie buffs and music lovers. There are also many that sell private items belonging to famous people, some of which are still lucrative substations where the protagonist is Diana of Wales or the more recent sales, such as those linked to the late actor Gene Hackman. What is not so usual is that items of famous people who are already living are sold, but sometimes economic problems can lead to this. And that is why Francis Ford Coppola sold an extraordinary watch from his private collection, which, in the sub-boutique of the Phillips firm in New York, reached the record price of 10.8 million dollars in a fight that lasted only a few minutes.
This is a personalized luxury watch from the Swiss house FP Journe, unique in its category and owned by the director. The Journe FFC Prototype, for which I was also a co-designer and filmmaker, was among seven watches offered Saturday, December 6, at the Phillips Festival on Park Avenue (at my home, the total realized by the seven pieces was $43.5 million, the highest total for a subgroup of watches in U.S. history). The wristwatch, “one of the most important watches ever offered at a substation” and “the first watch that tells time with the use of a human sole,” as Phillips described it, was sold to an unnamed telephone operator after 11 minutes of purchase, according to a press release. This sale therefore marks the highest price achieved by a sub-watch in the United States since the sale by Phillips in 2017 of the Rolex Paul Newman Daytona that belonged to the American actor.
“We were excited by the outcome of Francis Ford Coppola’s FP Journe FFC prototype. The importance of this watch, which represents the definitive creative collaboration between the most brilliant minds in the history of cinema and watchmaking, is undeniable,” Paul Boutros, Vice President and Director of Americas Watches at Phillips, told the media. The Hollywood Reporter. “In recent days we have seen interest from all over the world and it was wonderful to see the well-deserved world record achieved in the basement room at Phillips in New York,” he explained. According to reports, up to 2,000 people gathered to fight.
“Unique in its configuration (with steel bridges, a gray rotating minute ring and a black-treated titanium hand), this unique prototype is engraved with Coppola’s name and comes directly from the director’s personal collection,” as described in the subasta ad published by Phillips on his Instagram account on November 26. “The collaboration began in 2012, when Coppola asked Journe if a watchmaker had ever thought of displaying the hours while the old ones were ticking, counting them with his fingers. Journe took on this technical challenge and, after seven years of development, he finally brought the project to life,” he explains in the publication. Along with the message, they published a video of a meeting between the director and the watchmaker in Rome last October — in the same city where the director was hospitalized last August for a heart problem —. When he asked Journe why he was asking for one of his watches to be sold, which he didn’t like, his response was clear: “Because you’re Francis, I like your films and I love them.”
“Collectors responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to acquire Francis Ford Coppola’s personal watches, achieving excellent results for the Hollywood icon’s timepieces. From the record-breaking FFC Prototype to the Chronometer to the FFC Résonance which soared to $584,500 to the Breguet which sold for 15 times its lowest esteem, it is clear that one cannot underestimate the admiration for Señor Coppola and his taste for these watches.
The sale came after the award-winning director suffered a major financial setback with the launch of Megalopolis 2024, which only raised $14.4 million worldwide, despite saving $120 million. Coppola used his own resources to make the film, along with Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel and Jon Voight. The filmmaker also uses this watch, whose value is estimated at at least one million dollars, during its first presentation at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, depending on the month The Hollywood Reporter. Last month, in March, the director of cinema classics like The Padrino Yes Apocalypse now revealed his economic problems during an appearance on Tetragram Podcast. “I have no money because I invested all the money I asked for to win Megalopolis“, I said. “Basically, he’s exhausted. I think I’ll get it back in 15 or 20 years, but now I don’t have it. And in October, Coppola spoke with The New York Times to confirm that he was putting several pieces from his watch collection up for sale: “I need some money to keep the boat afloat.”
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