After the busy week we experienced at Watches and Wonders, where many interesting new products were presented that we told you about here in our magazine, today I want to tell you about what I think was one of the most absurd watches we saw.
To be precise, this is not an absolute novelty, but a reinterpretation of a watch that had already intrigued the entire watchmaking world and had been much talked about.
I’m talking about the F.P. Journe FFC (Francis Ford Coppola), the world’s first watch that shows the hours via a hand on the dial that comes to life as time passes.
Before discovering all the details of this masterpiece of watchmaking signed Journe, I think it is interesting to tell the story that led to the creation of this true work of mechanical art.
A new challenge for François-Paul Journe
The world of independent maisons has always been dominated by watchmakers with highly creative and, above all, unconventional flair. If we also add to these two characteristics innovation, without upsetting tradition, combined with the ability to create knockout finishes, we cannot help but think of François-Paul Journe.
The skilled watchmaker born in 1957 in Marseille, France, has always been able to make watches that contain within them some of the most innovative mechanical solutions as well as true masterpieces for the eyes thanks to the finishes affixed to the movement and dials.
We can therefore define Journe as a manufacture capable of reinterpreting the traditional canons of ancient watchmaking but in an entirely personal and highly distinctive way.
Since time immemorial, what I would call one of the greatest watchmakers of our time has taken on various challenges and then turned them into creations that have left the watchmaking world speechless. Just think of the Chronomètre à Résonance or the Vagabondage collection to name a few of my favorite watches from the maison.
And it is thanks to never backing down, even in the face of the most difficult challenges, that Journe was able to create one of the most unique and interesting watches ever in my opinion, namely the Francis Ford Coppola.
It all began in 2009, when Eleanor Coppola, wife of the famous American director Francis Ford Coppola, gave her husband an F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance. The director was so amazed and fascinated by the watch that he even invited Journe to his “Inglenook” winery in Napa Valley so he could meet him.
The meeting between the two, which took place in 2012, provided an opportunity to be able to discuss different principles of representing the passage of time above clocks.
Francis Ford Coppola, fascinated by the unconventional ways of telling time, asked Journe if there had ever before been a watchmaker who could create a timepiece where the hours were displayed the way the ancients indicated them, that is, by counting them on his fingers.
Journe, who knew inside himself that this had never yet been realized, was so fascinated by this idea of being able to scan the hours through the 5 fingers of his hand that, in 2014, he decided to take on the challenge by creating something never seen before.
That same year, the skilled watchmaker set to work to create the prototype of what was later named Journe FFC Blue and sold at the Only Watch 2021 charity auction.
The Journe Francis Ford Coppola Blue, driven by a good charitable cause as well as the fact that it was a one-of-a-kind piece from the maison, reached a staggering EUR 4.5 million in the auction. Given the complexity of making this watch, one might have thought that the FFC would remain a one-of-a-kind timepiece forever.
In 2022, however, more precisely in July, on the occasion of the celebration of 20 years of partnership between Great Master of Time of Milan and F.P. Journe, a prototype of the FFC appeared on the wrist of the skilled watchmaker featuring a hand with a different color than the ‘only one made for Only Watch 2021.
What might have appeared to be a one-of-a-kind personal Journe, now turns out to actually be a prototype that enabled the subsequent creation of the Francis Ford Coppola presented at Watches and Wonders 2023.
New F.P. Journe FFC in platinum
The new F.P. Journe FFC, similar to the one-of-a-kind piece made for Only Watch 2021, is characterized by the unique way of indicating time in that the hours are marked through the hand that comes to life.
The realization of the hand to scan the time was made possible by Francis Ford Coppola and François-Paul Journe’s discovery of a way to represent the 12 hours through the use of 5 fingers by a mechanism capable of properly transcribing the digits into digital signs.
The inspiration for the design of the hand inserted inside the skeleton dial was taken from the design of a prosthesis made by the Frenchman Ambroise Paré who lived from 1510 to 1590.
This skilled physician, famous for several innovations in the field of medicine, had an avant-garde attitude toward prosthetics throughout his career.
Among them we find the prosthetic hand equipped with a mechanism by which it was possible to open and close the fingers by the pressure of a button and springs that returned them to their original position, as if the hand closed naturally.
And it is this highly mechanically complex hand that Journe wanted to include in his watch, equipping it with a mechanism that would allow it to replicate its operation in a similar way to Ambroise Paré’s hand, but to tell the time.
Made with a 42-mm platinum case, the Journe FFC houses the caliber 1300.3 in 18-carat rose gold made, of course, by the house.
This automatic movement, capable of powering the hand of the watch for 5 days, is equipped with a “remontoir d’égalité” that allows only the energy from the barrel to be used.
As Journe specified, “Every hour, and for 40 minutes, the “remontoir d’égalité,” consisting of a spring blade enclosed in a kind of barrel, a trigger, and a kind of anchor mounted on one side on a wheel with an eccentric in the center, is recoiled from the movement. At the stroke of the hour, the mechanism acting as a kind of escapement and acting once an hour, is released so that the energy stored by the main barrel can, through the intermediary of this tangential-acting fork, set in motion the series of 10 cams whose purpose is to control the movement of the fingers of the hand.”
We can briefly say that the movement of this watch is as fascinating as all the work it has to do in order for the hand to be operated to indicate the hours is complex. Suffice it to say that thanks to the ingenuity of the system that powers the watch, the energy required to actuate one finger or four fingers (to indicate the hours) is always the same and is calibrated so that it takes place in total safety and, above all, without altering the chronometry of the regulating assembly.
It would also be normal to imagine that when a watch encloses within it complications of this level the thickness of the case is rather substantial. But this is not the case with the FFC which can boast, thanks to the absence of a dial and hands, a thickness of only 10.70 mm resulting, therefore, in a similar size and wearability to the other models of the manufacture.
But how is the time actually indicated?
At first glance, reading the time on top of this particular clock may seem difficult, but actually, once you understand how it works, it will be even easier and more immediate than a traditional clock.
First, to indicate the hours, we find the titanium hand in the center of the dial with the 5 fingers each corresponding to a number. At the stroke of each hour, the fingers are actuated by the complex mechanism that powers the watch and rise as the hours advance.
First, to indicate the hours, we find the titanium hand in the center of the dial with the 5 fingers each corresponding to a number. At the stroke of each hour, the fingers are actuated by the complex mechanism that powers the watch and rise as the hours advance.
The indicator placed at 12 o’clock on the dial, on the other hand, goes to indicate the minute markers placed on an external rotating disc. This, as each hour passes, makes a full rotation going to mark the 60 minutes of each hour.
What do we think
Whether you are a lover of the house or not, one cannot help but be fascinated by such a creation, the result of 7 years of development and research of the most innovative solutions to create a true mechanical masterpiece.
In a world where time is usually marked conventionally by hands, Journe has certainly found an alternative that has been missing in the world of watchmaking and that has immediately intrigued all enthusiasts.
What makes this watch even more interesting and fascinating is surely the historicity of the inspiration of the hand resulting from the reinterpretation of a drawing by one of the most illustrious and important physicians in history.
Price and availability
The new F.P. Journe FFC will be sold at a price of about EUR 800,000 and production will be limited annually. Considering the complexity of producing such a watch, between 10 and 15 watches per year will probably be produced.
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