What Is the Bezel on Dive Watches Used For?
Who hasn’t casually rotated the bezel of their dive watch, wondering in the process what those markings could possibly be for? Here’s the explanation.
No, we’re not all seasoned divers, equipped with a Rolex Submariner and a harpoon, plunging every day into the turquoise waters of some far-off land redolent of monoi, where golden-skinned young women wait and stoke the fire to cook the fruits of your catch, all the while praising our virility in songs and poems…
So, the bezel on dive watches is used to indicate immersion time. Simply rotate the bezel to align the zero marker with the minute hand at the moment you descend; as your dive progresses, you can see how many minutes you’ve spent underwater and thus estimate the remaining oxygen in your tanks.
The bezel is generally unidirectional to limit errors caused by accidental movement of the bezel during the dive.
