Bezel (watch)

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Slide rule bezel and tachymeter (innermost scale) of a Breitling watch

A bezel (from the French lunette for "small moon") is a border around the face of a clock . There are very different designs depending on the type of watch.

Watch

In small watches (i.e. portable watches, wrist and pocket watches ), the bezel is part of the watch case. It is a ring that is mounted on the dial side of the case body. This decorative ring can be firmly connected to the watch case or it can be rotated. It is provided with a groove in which the watch glass is inserted.

If the bezel can be rotated, it can be used to mark times (e.g. the dive time on diving watches), to display a second local time and angle, or to perform quick calculations. The method of determining the south using the hour hand and the dial or bezel is listed in the article Analog clock .

Common examples are the pulse rate of a chronograph with a pulsometer scale (also doctor scale ), the breathing rate of an asthmometer , the speed of a chronograph with a tachymeter scale or general calculations such as a disk rule or slide rule (e.g. the MIMO Loga ). For pulsometer, asthmometer and tachymeter scales, the bezel does not have to be rotatable, which is why these scales are sometimes alternatively printed on the dial .

The most important role in a slide rule bezel is played by the “10” on the scale. For example, if you want to multiply 3 × 6, you first have to turn a number, here the 3, to match the 10. If you then look at the number 6 on the bezel scale, you can see that the number 18 is on the bezel opposite. Dividing works just as easily. To do this, the number you want to divide by is placed above the second number, the divisor. The result of the division can now be read above 10 on the bezel. In practice, such a slide rule bezel is mainly needed by pilots in order to be able to convert nautical miles. To do this, a pilot has to set the miles on the left of the dial and then read the kilometers on the bezel at 12 o'clock.

In one of the first two automatic watch models (with a round watch case) by John Harwood and Blancpain from 1926 and in the case of the Freak rotating watch from Ulysse Nardin , the bezel is used to set the time. As a rule, bezels on special diving watches can only be rotated counterclockwise. This means that in the event of inadvertent adjustment, too little, but never too large a time reserve can be displayed. The first diver's watch from Jaeger-LeCoultre , the Deep Sea Automatic Alarm , had a bezel, but it was not yet rotatable. On some models from the manufacturer Timex , the rotating bezel is used to quickly set the alarm time.

Clocks

With large clocks (stationary table, wall, floor and tower clocks), a decorative ring around the dial is called the bezel. In past Wiener regulators of Biedermeier the steady rests are often associated with a machine-generated geometric ornamental engraving ( guilloche provided). Simpler versions of the bezel decorations are cast from bronze or pressed into the solid material with a knurled tool . Today, large clocks, if decorative hoops are still used at all, have bezels made mainly of thin stamped sheet metal.

In high-quality clocks, the bezel is usually not the support of the watch glass. In this case, the watch glass is mounted in the wooden door of the watch case on the front.

However, many table clocks or kitchen clocks do not have a glazed wooden case. In these cases, a sheet of glass pressed into the bezel often protects the dial. These folding bezels are often provided with a hinge to position the pointer .

photos

  • Chronograph with tachymeter bezel

  • Printed pulsometer scale

literature

  • Otto Böckle, Wilhelm Brauns: Textbook for the watchmaking trade. Work skills and materials. 8-10 Edition. Wilhelm Knapp, Halle (Saale) 1951 (reprint, edited by Michael Stern. Heel, Königswinter 2010, ISBN 978-3-86852-288-4 ).
  • Hermann Brinkmann: Introduction to watchmaking (= The watchmaking school. Vol. 2). 10th unchanged edition. Wilhelm Knapp, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-87420-010-8 .
  • George Daniels : Watchmaking. Updated 2011 edition. Philip Wilson Publishers, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-85667-704-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georges-Albert Berner: Illustrated specialist dictionary of watchmaking , keyword small watch . Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  2. ↑ Georges-Albert Berner: Illustrated specialist dictionary of watchmaking , keyword bezel . Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  3. ↑ Georges-Albert Berner: Illustrated specialist lexicon of watchmaking , keyword asthmometer . Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  4. ↑ Georges-Albert Berner: Illustrated specialist lexicon of watchmaking , keyword large clock . Retrieved January 24, 2012.