Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is thrilled to welcome you to The Geneva Sessions, Spring 2026, Online Auction, running from 12:00 PM CET, Thursday, 5 March, to 2:00 PM CET, Thursday, 12 March. The sale features more than 80 high-end luxury wristwatches, ranging from A. Lange & Söhne and F.P. Journe to Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe.
– By Logan Baker
Interest in F.P. Journe has crossed a line that no independent watchmaker has ever quite reached before.
This is no longer just about collector demand or horological respect. Journe now sits in the rare space where serious scholarship, record-breaking prices, and broader cultural recognition overlap. The proof is not only in the watches that have redefined auction history, but also in the objects orbiting them.
Over the past 18 months, Phillips has helped document this ascent at auction. In November 2024, a 1993 Tourbillon à Remontoire d’Égalité No. 15/93, the second wristwatch ever made by François-Paul Journe, sold in Geneva for a record-setting CHF 7.32 million. Six months later, in May 2025, the 1991 Pendule Sympathique Clock N°1 created by Journe in collaboration with THA for Breguet, achieved CHF 5.505 million.
The pattern continued throughout 2025. The platinum Chronomètre à Résonance Souscription No. 2 from 2000 realized CHF 3.327 million in November 2025. And a 2019 Régence Circulaire Tourbillon Souverain reached nearly CHF 1.7 million in the same auction. A few weeks later, in New York, a black mother-of-pearl Résonance made for Sincere Fine Watches crossed USD 3.69 million.
The inflection point came during that same New York sale. The 2021 FFC Prototype from the collection of Francis Ford Coppola sold for USD 10.755 million, setting a world record not only for Journe, but for any wristwatch by an independent watchmaker. At that level, the conversation shifts.
We're no longer talking about a cult or collector favorite – we're talking about a full-blooded cultural icon.
What makes this moment especially interesting is how Journe's horological gravity now pulls in objects far removed from traditional watchmaking.
Take the opening lot of the upcoming Phillips Geneva Sessions, Spring 2026, Online Auction. It’s a construction hard hat. You might be asking yourself why it belongs in a watch auction catalogue.
Well, this hard hat was issued in extremely limited numbers during the groundbreaking of the new F.P. Journe boutique in New York. It is branded, inscribed “Construction Crew,” and carries an estimate of CHF 100 to 200. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Doctors Without Borders. On paper, it is simple paraphernalia that might end up on the shelf of a guest who attended the opening. In context, however, it signals how far the Journe universe now extends.
The same is true at the opposite end of the sale.
Closing the auction is a BAIT × F.P. Journe Kokies Vinyl Toy Collectives Set, produced in 2022 in a limited run of 500 pieces, and now offered with an estimate of CHF 500 to 1,000. Created in collaboration with streetwear brand BAIT, the set depicts Journe at two stages of his life, complete with miniaturized versions of seven of his landmark watches. It is playful, self-aware, and unmistakably contemporary. That such an object exists at all tells you something important – Journe has become recognizable beyond the watch world without losing credibility inside it.
It’s tempting to call this hype, but the market is responding to substance.
Journe’s early work laid intellectual foundations that collectors continue to study. His later watches refined that language without softening it. The prices reflect confidence that this body of work will endure. These pieces of memorabilia reflect something else: affection, identification, and a sense of shared story.
No one is confusing vinyl toys with tourbillons. But interest in these items acknowledges that François-Paul Journe has become a reference point, a maker whose ideas, image, and history now resonate well beyond the wrist.
Journe's arc, from workshop to auction room to popular culture, is unprecedented in modern independent watchmaking.
You can view the complete Phillips Geneva Sessions, Spring 2026, Online Auction catalogue here.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past ten years covering the watch industry from every angle. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo in early 2023 as Senior Editorial Manager, after previous roles at Hodinkee and WatchTime. Originally from Texas, he spent a decade in New York and now calls Geneva home.
Recommended Reading
A Question of Gravity: The Tourbillons in the Phillips Geneva Sessions, Spring 2026, Online Auction
The History of the Vacheron Constantin Chronomètre Royal
Timing Is Everything: The Chronographs in the Phillips Geneva Sessions, Spring 2026, Online Auction