Famed film director Francis Ford Coppola is auctioning pieces from his personal watch collection, including a one-of-a-kind timepiece valued at about $1 million.
The New York Times reported the upcoming auction as Coppola works through a period of financial strain.
The sale will take place on Dec. 6 through Phillips, a leading auction house for watches and fine art.
Coppola said he is selling the watches to raise funds after self-financing his recent film Megalopolis, which reportedly cost more than $100 million to produce.
The film, released in September 2024, grossed only about $14 million. Coppola told the San Francisco Chronicle that much of the financing came from the sale of two of his wineries.
The centerpiece of the Coppola auction will be his FFC, a limited-edition watch he co-designed in 2014 with Swiss watchmaker F.P. Journe. The timepiece uses a sculpted hand to display the hours through finger movements rather than traditional numerals.
The model was released commercially in 2021 and retails for about $1 million. A prototype sold that year for nearly $5 million at Geneva's Only Watch charity auction.
Coppola said he wore his FFC only a few times because it was too valuable to insure. Phillips expects bidding to start near the $1 million mark, though the final price could climb higher depending on collector interest.
In interviews this year, Coppola has spoken candidly about his finances, saying he poured all available funds into Megalopolis. He maintains optimism that the film, which he insists should be seen in theaters, will eventually earn back its costs.
Coppola was briefly hospitalized in Rome in August for what he called an "update of my 30-year-old afib procedure," which was wrapped up with no apparent complications. He had just finished a promotional tour for Megalopolis.
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