(FORTUNE Magazine) – The two big watch shows, held in Switzerland (Basel and Geneva) in April, are something else. For the Basel exhibition, the makers construct elaborate, multistory pavilions with cafes inside. Rolex had a rock garden; Swatch decided not to do its reflecting pool again after people fell into it last year. If Basel is glamorous --note the "if"--Geneva is elegant. Solely for buyers and the media, it's not open to the public, but the air can get a bit stuffy (which you particularly notice when the shuttle to the convention center passes graffiti saying EAT THE RICH!).

Some things are constant at both shows: The watches are almost always set at 10:10, everyone's proud of quality and innovation, and you're not supposed to laugh when a watchmaker quotes Plato. Here are this year's trends. --Erik Torkells

Prices listed are for the least expensive model. Adding precious metals or gems, or complications, will make the price rise.

Chronographs

The general assumption seems to be that any serious watch must have a chronograph (a.k.a. stopwatch). Even though, as one rep pointed out, "I don't think anybody ever uses a chronograph." The trick now is to make sexier something that almost every watchmaker can do in his sleep. Blancpain's Split Second Chronograph can time two things at once ($18,600), and Glashutte Original's PanoRetroGraph has a chronograph that also counts down like a kitchen timer (from $49,000). Chronoswiss won raves for its single-pusher Chronoscope (right, $10,950). Where chronographs usually have three buttons on the side--to start, to clear, and to wind--the Chronoscope has just one. Chronoswiss found a way to build the chronograph inside the main movement, so the case is impressively thin.

Beyond platinum

Platinum? How 1998. The Piaget Polo now comes with a stone dial (onyx, lapis, or meteorite). Men's from $18,800; women's from $16,900. Baume & Mercier is doing its Capeland watch with a Kevlar dial for the first time ($2,795). And Panerai and Hublot both went for tantalum in a big way. The Panerai Luminor Tantalium uses the extremely hard metal to good effect (above left, $9,300); Panerais are always highly collectible, if you can get your hands on one. The people at Hublot pointed out that tantalum--as seen in its new 1910 Tantal (left, $21,900)--is hypo-allergenic, which is good if you accidentally swallow it. The face is meteorite.

Alarms

As if mechanical watches weren't complex enough, Breguet--in a joint venture with its sister brand, Blancpain--has spent four years developing one with an alarm. When the Classique Alarm is set, a musical note shows up in the window; when it goes off, the skeleton back reveals a tiny hammer striking a bell. The sound is louder than you'd think, and pleasingly chimelike. From $24,800 (Blancpain's is a few thousand dollars cheaper). With Tissot's Silen-T (left, from $410), you can run your finger along the rim, and it will vibrate when you hit the correct hour (and vibrate more softly when you get to the minute). They've also added an alarm: Just run your finger around the rim counter-clockwise. And Montblanc has mixed digital and analog for the first time: The Multifunction Titanium has a light, two time zones, a chronograph, an alarm, and an annual alarm. You'll never forget your anniversary again. From $2,750.

Funny faces

Underneath the sunny exterior of the Zenith Open--a happy face, indeed--lies a new movement, the El Primero 4021, that allows for windows on the front and back (above left, from $6,900). And for pure joie de vivre, you can't beat Roger Dubuis's Follow Me (above right, from $12,500). "You're going to see Madonna in this," predicted the rep, though Madonna seems to have grown out of her cross phase.

"Le bling-bling"

That's what one watch rep called the diamonds sprouting up--on women's watches, sure, but also on men's (even the sporty, manly ones). Rado jazzed up its streamlined, unisex Sintra with diamonds flanking the dial (right, from $3,200). And for the ladies--they're never "women" in the watch world--Girard-Perregaux added diamonds to its Lady Richeville line for the first time (from $8,950).

Rose gold

Everything was coming up rose gold at the shows. Also called red or pink gold (the specific tone depends on the alloy), it's less flashy than white or yellow gold, and it has a nice vintage patina. A rep for Vacheron Constantin also said it's "consistently the stronger seller." Vacheron's 31-Day Retrograde was a winner in rose ($17,500). Audemars Piguet brought out its thinnest watch ever: the New Extra Flat, shown above in rose gold, natch ($13,900).

Two time zones

For those in long-distance relationships: watches with dials displaying two time zones. Blancpain's Dual Time Zone Villeret with Day/Night Indicator (below, from $12,600) had a neat inset dial that said "jour" and "nuit"--so you would know if it was day or night in your second zone--but American buyers weren't amused, so now it uses a sun and a moon. L.U.C., the complicated-watch arm of Chopard, came out with the elegant, two-time-zone GMT ($9,365).

Sound

If you choose, Cartier's Tortue Minute Repeater (above left) will play tones that tell you the hour, quarter-hour, and minute--priced at $141,700, it's particularly useful for the blind rich. Girard-Perregaux goes one further with its Opera Three (above right, $475,000), which plays a melody--"Too Much Time on My Hands," perhaps?

Tourbillons

Tourbillons are tiny devices that keep a mechanical watch--one that needs winding--from losing accuracy because of the effects of gravity. Watchmakers were announcing their tourbillons like proud parents: Piaget put its first in its Piaget Emperador (from $91,000). Jaeger-LeCoultre debuted its Reverso Platinum Number Two, notable for having a tourbillon in a small rectangular case (rectangles offer less usable room than circles). From $65,000. Patek Philippe has never opened the dial to show the tourbillon--which most watchmakers do, so you can see it twitch--because UV light dries out the oils, mucking with the accuracy. Instead, Patek turned the movement around so the tourbillon can be seen from the back without getting too much light (right, not yet priced). With the 10 Day Tourbillon--which has a ten-day power reserve--Patek is hoping for independent verification of accuracy of less than one second a day (the official Swiss bureau usually looks for a variation of four to six seconds). Finally, there's mad watchmaker Franck Muller. The tourbillon in his Revolution 2 adjusts for horizontal and vertical moves, for reasons that Muller says the layperson won't understand (top right, not yet priced).

Unisex

Once upon a time, women's watches were tiny and men's were big. But then women started buying men's watches, and men's watches got huge. A few watchmakers are looking for that perfect middle ground that appeals to both sexes. Jaeger-LeCoultre's Master Compressor Automatic is a sporty unisex watch (right, $6,500). And Ebel has its 1911 La Carree, a square watch originally for men but which, Ebel thinks, will certainly appeal to women (far right, from $2,550).

XXL

"The heavier the watch," said one rep, "the more we can charge." Men's watches continue to grow. DeGrisogono's Doppio Tre is absolutely massive, but it can still do tricks. It flips up and reverses: two faces and three time zones (from $19,500). Breitling revealed its largest watch ever--and that's saying something. The Bentley Motors Chronograph is 47.8 millimeters in diameter (above, from $5,270). And then there's Audemars Piguet's cyborg-sized Terminator 3 ($19,900). Made of titanium, so it's not as heavy as it looks, it's featured in the new movie. Arnold's a fan.

Complicated women

The thinking had always been that women want pretty watches, not complicated or mechanical ones. But Ronald Jackson, president of Gerard-Perregaux USA, says the women's complicated/mechanical category grew 10% from 2001 to 2002, and he expects more of an increase in 2003. As Jackson noted, women who are willing to spend a lot of money on a watch are bound to learn that mechanicals last longer. Now here comes Cartier: For the first time it's making a ladies-size mechanical version of its Collection Privee Cartier Paris (above, $9,200). Patek Philippe, meanwhile, introduced complicated watches for women six years ago, said a rep, "and they've totally exceeded our expectations." For the woman who wants it all, Patek's popular Twenty-4 model is now available with a mechanical movement and is covered in pave diamonds. It was named Twenty-4 because a woman can wear it 24 hours a day--"This one's more of a Four," joked the rep (far right, $71,000).

Useful complications

Anywhere else, "useful complication" would sound like a contradiction in terms. But watchmakers thrive by creating new functions. The big news from IWC is its Portuguese Perpetual Calendar (left, from $26,500). It tells the time, day, date, month, and year (to four digits) and has a seven-day power reserve and a perpetual calendar (which allows for leap years). Bonus: The lunar indicator tells the moon phase in the northern and southern hemispheres. For sheer usefulness--for a certain clientele--nothing competes with Breitling's Emergency (which has a transmitter that can call for help). It recently led to the rescue of two pilots going to the South Pole; that makes 19 lives saved since 1995. The new Emergency Mission costs $4,220 and up.

Useless complications

And then there are the watchmakers that can't help showing off. On the face of Franck Muller's Crazy Hours model (below right, from $17,000), the numbers are mixed up. The minute hand goes around normally, but the hour hand darts to whichever number is appropriate. "It's Muller time!" said the rep, presumably alluding to the slogan for a cheap American beer. Muller's burgeoning watch empire also includes Pierre Kunz's brand. One of Kunz's new watches, the Retrograde Time Equation, has an arc showing the difference between solar time and the man-made construction of time--up to 15 minutes a year (from $33,000). And you didn't even know there was a problem.

The bespoke strap

While everyone else fights over who has the best-looking, most complicated watch, Dunhill is going after the strap. You simply walk into a Dunhill store in Paris or London, and they'll make a strap to order for any model of watch. There are 690 possible combinations of materials and colors (for the band and the lining), and there's only one hole. That's the beauty of customization (from $640; 800-776-4053, www.dunhill.com).

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