From his home in Thun, Switzerland, Beat Haldimann has quietly spent the last few decades making some of the finest handmade watches around.

Haldimann, born in 1964, qualified as a watchmaker in 1985, and in 1993 was recognized as a master watchmaker — he spent the 1990s honing his craft for others, before putting his own name on the dial in 2000, presenting the H101, a clock featuring Haldimann’s patented detached escapement with two movements oscillating in resonance. In 2002, Haldimann followed this up with Lyra, a central tourbillon wristwatch with a lyre-shaped cage. In the years following, other innovations emerged from Haldimann’s small manufacture, made even more impressive by the fact that Haldimann works without computer-assisted tools.

H101, a clock featuring Haldimann’s patented detached escapement with two movements oscillating in resonance

Haldimann H1 Flying Central Tourbillon, the central tourbillon in a lyre-shaped cage

In 2009, Haldimann’s innovation was recognized by the award of a Prix Gaïa in the craftsmanship-creation category, acknowledging the importance of his work in watchmaking — a work that continues to this day not just with his new inventions, but also the introduction of his children, Iris Olga and Niklaus Anton Haldimann, who have joined the family business, continuing a long line of watchmakers that is traced back to 1642.