The PHILLIPS New York Watch Auction: XIII takes place on 6-7 December 2025, at our Park Avenue headquarters. The auction includes more than 140 of the world's finest watches – and though we are loath to boast, we truly think it's one of the best catalogues we've ever put together. We'll be highlighting several of the most interesting lots and stories featured in the sale right here, including the watches from Francis Ford Coppola's collection seen below.
– By Logan Baker
Francis Ford Coppola built his career on telling stories that reshaped American culture and cinema.
His films carried ambition, risk, invention, and a willingness to follow his instincts wherever they led. You see the same instincts in the way he collected watches. They entered his life after he had already secured a place in film history, and they stayed with him as he tended to his vineyard, wrote new scripts, and pursued ideas that most people would consider impossible.
Collectors sell watches every day, but it is unusual to see someone of Coppola’s stature part with the timepieces that accompanied him through the past three decades of his life and career, an era that delivered his most personal work.
His decision to offer them at the upcoming Phillips New York Watch Auction: XIII provides the watches with a new layer of context. They become a window into what he valued away from the camera. They also tell the story of how one of the world’s greatest living directors became François-Paul Journe’s most unexpected collaborator.
The F.P.Journe FFC prototype, which we explored in-depth in a separate recent article, forms the center of that story. Coppola and Journe met only because Coppola's wife, Eleanor, bought her husband a platinum Chronomètre à Résonance RN for Christmas in 2009. Journe thanked them for their interest with a personal note, a gesture that started a correspondence eventually leading to Coppola inviting Journe to his Inglenook estate and vineyards.
Journe accepted, and in 2012, visited the Coppola family at Inglenook. During dinner on the first evening of Journe's three-night stay, Coppola wondered aloud whether a single human hand had ever been used to express time on a watch. Journe listened. This question became the foundation of F.P.Journe's FFC wristwatch.
The FFC prototype, which Journe gifted to Coppola after its completion in 2021, is now heading to auction and is remarkably important in its own right, but it also sheds light on the rest of the watches that Coppola owned and wore over the years.
These watches illustrate what first captured Coppola's interest in fine watchmaking, before the conversation with Journe evolved into something more substantial. In addition to the FFC prototype, Coppola is offering six wristwatches from his personal collection, which he acquired over the course of more than three decades, during the New York Watch Auction: XIII.
Coppola's platinum F.P.Journe Chronomètre à Résonance RN 40mm (lot 18) is perhaps the most emotionally significant watch in his collection. It's also the watch that helped establish his relationship with Journe.
Journe built the Résonance around the natural phenomenon that gives the watch its name. It utilizes two independent balance wheels that beat in harmony, creating a state of resonance that stabilizes both oscillators and enhances timekeeping. Journe first achieved it in a pocket watch in the 1980s, then produced the first wristwatch version in 1999. The second-generation RN series, released in 2004, introduced a larger 40mm case and a movement crafted from 18k rose gold.
Coppola wore his example for years. His wife, Eleanor, purchased it for him as a Christmas gift in 2009 after more than four decades of marriage. Eleanor passed away in April 2024, and this very special Résonance will forever be tied to her memory – as well as to the concept that sparked a friendship between Coppola and one of modern independent watchmaking’s most brilliant and original minds.
It's essential to note that Coppola’s interest in fine watchmaking neither began nor concluded with F.P.Journe.
He also gravitated toward watches that spoke to clarity, design, or mechanical charm. One example is a stainless-steel, circa 2014 IWC Portugieser Chronograph Ref. IW3714 with a black dial (lot 78). Coppola purchased it because he appreciated its clean and clear design.
Breguet caught his attention for different reasons. A circa 2010 Breguet Classique Ref. 5140BA in 18k yellow gold (lot 79) reflects Coppola's respect for horological history. The grand feu enamel dial pairs with long, thin pomme-style hands made of heat-blued steel and a round gold case that bears the fingerprints of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s original design language. Coppola admired Breguet as the inventor of the self-winding watch and understood that his influence still flows through the brand's contemporary offerings.
Patek Philippe was also part of Coppola's watch-collecting journey. A Calatrava Ref. 3919 in 18k white gold (lot 80), featuring a clous-de-Paris bezel and a white lacquered dial, was added to his collection around 1990. Coppola acquired it for its elegant, timeless design and pure mechanical excellence.
Meanwhile, a circa 2008 Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 5130G in 18k white gold (lot 81) caught his attention during the many years he spent traveling extensively around the world. The guilloché center of its dial connects it to Patek's vintage world-time wristwatches, while the modern case dimensions and city ring made it a practical and trustworthy travel companion for Coppola on countless international trips.
The final watch from Coppola's collection to be offered at the New York Watch Auction: XIII is a perfect reminder of his perpetual curiosity – it's a circa 2010 Blancpain Répétition Minutes in 18k white gold (lot 82). The movement inside, numbered 01, descends from the influential calibre 35, one of the first-ever automatic minute-repeating wristwatch movements, which Blancpain introduced during its revival under Jean-Claude Biver in the late 1980s. Coppola acquired the watch after hearing about Blancpain’s modern reputation for innovation in chiming wristwatches.
These seven watches form a small but revealing portrait of the director – and collector.
Coppola did not collect based on trends or marketing. He selected watches that held meaning for him, whether due to their design, historical significance, or personal value.
A quote from a recent interview with Coppola is revealing, exemplifying his tireless work ethic – and, potentially, his watch-collecting philosophy:
“When I do work, I try to make it the greatest it can be, the most ambitious it can be. If I fail, so what? If I don’t try to make it the most wonderful it could be, I fail anyway.”
That is how he has always approached his craft, his films, and his winemaking. It's also how he approached time. Coppola's watches allowed him to hold on to a small piece of mechanical history while perpetually contemplating his future.
The sale of these watches will mark the first time they have left Coppola's private collection. It's the closure of a chapter that partially began with a gift from his wife, evolved into a friendship with one of watchmaking’s most creative minds, and culminated in a prototype that bears his initials and his idea.
The watches will now be appreciated by a new audience – their stories, however, will stay with them.
You can view the complete Phillips New York Watch Auction: XIII auction catalogue here.