Watch Bezels

A watch bezel is the ring that surrounds the face of the watch and holds the crystal in place. The bezel can be used for decorative or functional purposes. When it comes to ladies watches, it is fairly common to see diamonds, rubies, sapphires, or emeralds on the bezels of these watches. There are even a lot of watch manufacturers that produce men's watches with bezels that have diamonds on them.  

Time Measurement

Watches have a either a uni-direction or bi-directional rotation bezel. The bezel itself is numbered 0-60 minutes with an arrow marker at 0, some count down and some count up. If it is a count down bezel and you are going scuba diving and you have a total of 25 minutes of air in your tank, it's pretty important that you know when you should start swimming to the surface. Lets say that it is 10:15am. To measure time with your bezel, simply turn the bezel so the 25 minute marker lines up with the minute hand on the watch dial. When the minute hand reaches zero on the bezel, your time is up. Or you may turn the bezel so that the zero marker is pointing to 10:40 (25 minutes later). Either way this is the same setting. If it is a count up bezel, rotate the bezel so the zero marker lines up with the minute hand and count off the minutes as time passes. When the minute hand reached 25 minutes on the bezel, your time is up.

Speed Measurement

On other watches you can use the bezel to help you compute speed based on travel time. To do so, start the chronograph function of the watch at a mile indicator. At the next mile indicator, the point on the scale that is adjacent to the second hand is your MPH speed. If the distance is measured in Kilometers, the bezel can also determine metric speed.

Gem Bezels

Diamond bezels are not just of dress anymore. Steel watches with diamond bezels have become more and more popular. Some have diamond cases and some have a separate bezel on top of the watch. The diamonds can be set with one row of larger diamonds, which is more expensive than two or more rows of smaller diamonds. Some bezels ar made with gem stones like blue topaz, tsavorite or amethyst. They usually have coordinating straps.