Francis Ford Coppola’s One-of-One F.P. Journe Watch Can Now Be Yours

Francis Ford Coppola wants you to make him an offer he can’t refuse.

The movie titan’s remarkable one-of-one F.P. Journe, which uses a single human-hand mechanism to convey time on its dial, can now be yours. The first and only watch from the brand to use an idea that came from someone other than François-Paul Journe himself is about to hit the auction block. Known as the FCC Prototype, the timepiece (expected to fetch over $1 million) will be the top lot in Phillips’s upcoming New York auction in December, alongside six other stunning watches from Coppola’s treasure trove.

The story of the FCC Prototype began back in 2012, when Coppola and Journe met at the filmmaker’s Napa Valley winery, Inglenook. It was there that Coppola asked Journe if a human had had ever been used to show time on a watch. That was the question that launched years of collaborations and discussions between the pair to figure out how exactly a hand with five digits could be used to convey a 12-hour period. Now, the FCC Prototype is the first timepiece to ever don the feature, and it’s one of just six prototype pieces made by Journe himself to ever be sold.

“Speaking with Francis in 2012 and hearing his idea on the use of a human hand to indicate time inspired me to create a watch I never could have imagined myself,” Journe said in a statement. “The challenge was formidable—exactly the type of watchmaking project I adore.”

Those challenges included how to actually dream up the hand and make it functional. For that, Journe turned to Ambroise Paré, a 16^th-century barber surgeon and prosthetic limbs specialist, for inspiration. The watchmaker used Paré’s prosthetic hand (made from iron and leather) as a model for the automaton; to power the black-treated titanium hand mechanism, Journe drew on his Octa caliber 1300.3 and the remontoir d’egalité to craft a mere 8.1 mm thick movement, a creation that took seven years to bring to life. After years of partnership, Coppola finally received the watch in 2021. Not to be left out, Journe also made a unique iteration for himself, too.

“This FFC Prototype is, without question, one of the most historically significant F. P. Journe timepieces ever made,” Paul Boutros, Phillips’s deputy chairman and head of watches, Americas, said in a statement. The piece “is more than a watch—it is a singular work of art, a technical marvel, and a deeply personal object, made for one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Its incredible provenance, remarkable creativity, and exceptional rarity place it firmly amongst the most important timepieces ever to appear at auction, and we are thrilled to present this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to our international community.”

As we mentioned, that’s not all of the filmmaker’s watches that are heading to the block. The Phillips auction will also give you the chance to snag the including a platinum F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance (estimate to fetch $120,000 to $240,000). This is the timepiece that first connected Coppola and Journe. The filmmaker’s wife Eleanor gifted him the watch back in 2009, a present that lead Coppola to invite the watchmaker to his Napa Winery.

Other offerings up for grabs include a Patek Philippe World Time ref. 5130G ($15,000 to $30,000), a Patek Philippe Calatrava ref. 3919 ($6,000 to $12,000), and a Breguet Classique ref. 5140 ($4,000 to $8,000). Rounding out the timepieces are a Blancpain Minute Repeater ($15,000 to $30,000) and an IWC Portugieser Chronograph ($3,000 to $6,000).

Luckily, you only have a short while to wait before snagging one of these beauties. Phillips’s The New York Watch Auction: XIII will take place from December 6 to 7.