It is the same procedure every year. As a journalist you make a lot of appointments prior to the watch and jewellery fairs in Switzerland every spring, adding some dates when you arrive at Geneva's SIHH or in Basel, where they named the tradeshow 'BaselWorld' this year.

Because you have more appointments than you honestly can manage to keep, especially at this show, you are always in hurry. Rushing through the wide exhibition halls from one booth to another in order to be there on time, you have to practice 'slalom running' between all the people walking slowly, who only visit the fair to see new watches without any professional ambitions.

This year, something was different. Very different. One was able to walk freely at whatever speed you wished without having to say “excuse me” here and “sorry” there, because a lot of visitors were simply missing. As a person who has attended the fairs frequently, I have to say; I never saw the huge halls of 'Messe Basel' less crowded. However, this was only the case in Basel.

The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, which is not open to the public, looked the same as in past years. Sure, some Asian people were missing because of the SARS disease. But besides that, there was the same distinguished, elegant and calm atmosphere as there is every year.

Already before the fairs, I had been told of the low expectations in terms of turnover the German watch producers and wholesalers had of the upcoming trade shows. After the Inhorgenta Fair, which takes place in Munich every February, had turned out simply horrible for some companies, these people came to Basel afraid of a real disaster, high costs and low sales. Reality however, as in life, turned out ambivalent.

On one hand, especially on the booths of some of the small watch companies, you really could catch a glimpse of disappointed people. Although being a visitor who only has to observe, I could not help but feel sorry for some exhibitors - and not only the Germans. They really had much to regret, waiting for customers at their booths and realizing that the most important season of the business year was to be a flop for them.

On the other hand, I met many owners, employees and agents of watch companies, who remained optimistic throughout the fairs and indeed had made good turnovers in the end.

Some watch companies at least avoided the extremely high costs of having their own stand in Basel. The German brand Jacques Etoile, for instance, simply stayed at home. They invited their retailer customers and the press to see their new collections at their company in Lörrach, which is a just tram ride across the German border from downtown Basel.

Also the German owned watch brand Fortis did without its own stand at BaselWorld this year. They invited buyers and press to a private exhibition at a nearby hotel and then to their factory in Grenchen.

I myself refused to follow these invitations, because in my opinion, companies wanting to show and sell their products worldwide and pay attention to being mentioned in the press as often as possible, should come to fairs and not ask people to spend their rare time visiting the brand's workshops.

Talking about watches, I must admit that I did not see many things that surprised me very much. Maybe it's because you get a little fed up with all the complicated watches every year and the unique mechanisms that somebody has re-invented. Perhaps there weren't so many spectacular new watches in 2003.

I saw many likeable watches in Geneva. At last, the development departments of IWC and A. Lange & Söhne are showing respect to watch lovers south of the equator and take into consideration the fact that phases of the moon appear in an opposite direction in the southern hemisphere. For that reason IWC constructed the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar and Lange & Söhne produced the Luna Mundi Southern Cross to show the moon as people in Jakarta or Cape Town are used to seeing it.

However, the watch which I admired the most from my watchmaker's point of view was in Basel, the Opus III mechanical digital watch created by Vianney Halter for Harry Winston, which shows hours, minutes and date plus a countdown for every last five seconds of a minute with 10 digital discs.

So, after all, despite the troubles of the people from the Far East caused by the SARS disease, the bad economic situation in many countries and the useless war on Iraq, as far as I know the fairs have been quite successful after all. And once again, it was fun to attend.