F.P. Journe FFC (Francis Ford Coppola)

Quick specs F.P. Journe FFC (Francis Ford Coppola)
Price: on request
Size: 42 mm
Reference: FFC

This F.P. Journe FFC (Francis Ford Coppola) tells the time with just five fingers. Why? Well, people used to tell the time like that centuries ago. And the American film director Francis Ford Coppola wandered if any watchmaker ever created a timepiece that used the ancient five-finger method. The answer is no. Until 2021. Here is the short story.

In 2009 Coppola got a F.P. Journe watch from his wife for his birthday. Enthusiastic about this Chronomètre à Résonance model, Coppola invited the creator to his winery in the US and three years later they meet. They discussed watches and Coppola wanders if you could display the time divided in 12 hours by counting it on the fingers of one hand, like the ancients. Why not, there are watches with a sundial as wel…

In 2014 François-Paul Journe starts working on this by creating a prototype that would be auctioned at Only Watch 2021. Of course, he fixes it, and the watch sells for a stunning 4.5 million Swiss francs, more than 4.5 million US dollars. It has a tantalum case, a very hard, silver-grey metal, with a blue, automated hand. The hand changes every hour, showing a couple of fingers that tell the hour. A rotating outer ring on the dial tells you the minutes.

The hand on the dial is based on the design of a mechanical hand created by the Frenchman Ambroise Paré (1509-1590). A barber and surgeon, in those days an ordinary combination, and he is considered as one of the fathers of modern surgery.

Use a table to understand the time on the F.P. Journe FFC (Francis Ford Coppola)

If customer demand or any other reason led to today’s F.P. Journe FFC we do not know, but F.P. presents this new version which is available for ‘everyone’. It’s merely the same as the blue Only Watch prototype, however the case is platinum now, and the central hand is titanium.

The movement is the same as the proto: the strong Octa 1300.3 which is capable of powering the motion of the cams, springs and more to make the fingers move and change shape. You can watch how it works in the video below the specs. The power reserve of 120 hours for an automata-ish watch like this is impressive. And so will the price be, which you can get on request. Make sure you learn the tell-the-time-with-fingers methode as shown below before buying one.