Does anyone want to buy Francis Ford Coppola's million-dollar watch?

The director is selling his bespoke wristwatch after spending millions on Megalopolis.

By Drew Gillis  |  October 24, 2025 | 3:53pm
Photo by Dominik Bindl/WireImage
Film News Francis Ford Coppola
Does anyone want to buy Francis Ford Coppola's million-dollar watch?

Megalopolis, the long-time dream project of Francis Ford Coppola, didn’t make very much money when it finally opened last year. In fact, it lost quite a bit of it, grossing under $15 million against a budget of more than $120 million. Even for a filmmaker as established and wealthy as Coppola, this is, shall we say, less than ideal; Coppola self-funded much of the project and sold his winery to make it happen. Now, the director continues his arduous path of trying to make some of that money back, which has manifested most recently as an auction for some of his watches. 

The auction is run through Phillips, which lists seven watches in total. The main event is a custom watch designed by F.P.Journe which, admittedly, is pretty cool. The face of the watch features a hand designed to look like a literal human hand, which indicates the hour with different hand symbols. (You can check out a graphic of it in this press release.) The other watches are much more normal-looking and significantly cheaper, though not cheap by any means; one is expected to sell for up to $240,000, with the rest in the four- or five-figure range. 

“I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,” Coppola said while introducing the items during a Zoom call, per The New York Times. Much of the financial troubles that Megalopolis wrought are captured in the documentary Megadoc, in which he’s quoted as saying (via The Hollywood Reporter) “Who cares if you died broke, if you made something you think is beautiful?” Sad as it may be to part with a pretty cool watch, it’s hard to imagine Coppola has many regrets.

 
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