Fleury Manufacture Opens Up the FXR-4 Chronograph

Openworked chronographs are easy to get wrong because the spectacle can quickly overwhelm the watch.

The Fleury Manufacture FXR-4 Openwork takes the harder path, exposing a serious hand-wound chronograph movement while keeping the display grounded and usable.

For a small independent workshop in Choulex, near Geneva, it’s a fitting statement of intent from a maker that built its reputation on components before putting its own name on the dial.

At a glance

Choulex precision with an independent streak

Fleury Manufacture is not the usual story of a watch label created first and an industrial base assembled later.

Jean-Marc Fleury spent more than a decade at Patek Philippe before founding Suisse Précision Composants in 2017, a specialist operation making high-precision parts for other watchmakers.

That background matters because the FXR-4 Openwork comes from a workshop already fluent in tolerances, machining and finishing rather than one learning those disciplines around a launch plan.

Fleury’s first calibre, the FM01, arrived in 2020, followed by the FXR-4 chronograph in 2024.

The Openwork edition now shifts the emphasis from simply wearing the mechanism to actively reading it through the front of the watch.

The FM04 rethinks a legendary chronograph architecture

At the centre of the FXR-4 Openwork is the FM04, a hand-wound chronograph calibre that revisits the architecture of the Lemania 2310.

That historical movement occupies rare territory in watchmaking, having served as the foundation for Omega’s calibre 321 and for high-end chronographs from houses including Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Breguet.

Fleury has not treated the idea as a museum piece.

The calibre has grown from the original 27 mm footprint to 32.5 mm, giving it more convincing presence inside a 40 mm case.

The beat rate rises to 21,600 vibrations per hour, while the power reserve extends to 60 hours.

The most interesting change is structural rather than decorative.

Fleury integrates the chronograph driving wheel into the going train, placing it and the fourth wheel beneath a single bridge.

It’s the kind of refinement that won’t shout from across a room, but it tells you a great deal about the thinking behind the watch.

The calibre keeps the traditional column wheel and horizontal clutch, a combination prized not just for pedigree but for the visible choreography it brings to a chronograph.

On an openworked watch, that mechanical theatre becomes part of the point.

A sapphire dial leaves very little room for compromise

The FXR-4 Openwork uses a skeletonised sapphire dial, allowing the 279-component FM04 to come forward visually without removing the basic order of the display.

The bridges have been opened and selected components reshaped to allow more light into the calibre.

That kind of exposure is unforgiving.

Every bevel, brushed flank, polished surface and Côtes de Genève stripe has to hold up under close inspection because the usual hiding places are gone.

Fleury’s finishing combines machine work with hand finishing, with the black-polished clutch lever standing out as one of the details that rewards a loupe.

Openworked chronographs often lose their way at the dial because there is simply too much going on.

Here, the display is kept to the essentials, with hours, minutes and central chronograph seconds read on the outer ring, joined by running seconds and a 30-minute counter at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock.

The result is still technical and visually dense, but not aimless.

Details & Specifications

The FXR-4 Openwork is a watch for collectors who care about how a chronograph works as much as how it looks.

It doesn’t use openness as decoration alone, but as a way of putting Fleury Manufacture’s engineering and finishing decisions in plain sight.