Chopard’s new movement making facility Fleurier Ébauches, made its first major steps at baselworld this year as they released the FE 151 caliber, a serially produced movement who now has been included into the Classic Manufactum watches. The movement has been present in two less famous models this year before being truly unveiled by featuring in the Classic Manufactum.
A model of the Imperial premiered the new movement in 2011
The Fleurier Ébauches facility has been conditioned in order to specifically design movements for Chopard watches in order to increase production of the models they are manufacturing. Decreasing their dependence on swatch company products, Chopard can use this, their fourth facility, to focus on the performance and resilience of their movements.
Fans of the history of Swiss watch making will notice that the namesake of this new facility is a nod to the original calibre division Fleurier’s Fabrique d’Ebauches which made up the movement division of the Fleurier watch company. After several mergers, notably with ASUAG, FEF became part of the conglomerate swatch group and largely ceased to exist. Whilst Fleurier Fabrique no longer produces movements, their influence in the technology is still alive as shown with the naming of this new facility.
The new movement that this new Chopard facility has produced called the FE 151 was premiered in two models in 2011, the L.U.C 1937 and the Imperiale and now it has been launched in a new Belle Epoque model from the Classic Manufactum range. This movement has been chronofiable-certified, which means that it has endured gruelling tests and an artificial ageing process in order to test its durability and the ability to stand the test of time whilst maintaining supreme precision.
The first calibre that FE has produced, called Caliber 01.04-C under the L.U.C naming system, is an automatic three handed movement with hacking seconds and an instant date change feature. The movement boasts a 60 hour power reserve and will be featured in a 38mm gold timepiece with a porcelain white dial and a date window. Most importantly, this model features a clear exhibition case back that allows the wearer to view the new movement in al of its glory.
This new manufacturing location for Chopard is going to be a great step forward in their productivity as they grant themselves the ability to create many more movements of the same exceptional quality. In 2010 the Fleurier Ébauches facility produced 1,000 movements, however, this year, Chopard expects the company will produce over 12x that number as the facility becomes a major part of the Chopard production machine.