As the descendent of a line of watchmakers going back four centuries, Beat Haldimann was bound to conceive his timepieces in the purest horological tradition. His watches and all their constituent parts are made at his workshop in Thun, with not a CNC machine in sight.

Christiaan Huygens foresaw it. Antide Janvier and Abraham-Louis Breguet made it happen. Resonance is a well-known phenomenon of physics, but only a handful of modern watchmakers have succeeded in applying it to their movements.

Classic or extravagant, understated or contemporary, sparkling or colourful? Mechanical or quartz? For men or women? Watches come as multiple combinations, surfing the latest trends to make a statement on the wrist. In the run-up to Baselworld 2016, choose the one for you.

In 1985, in the thick of the quartz crisis, a handful of idealists established the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants to defend the particular values of handcrafted and inventive mechanical horology. Twenty-five years on, and the AHCI is now a landmark.