Credits: Article and images by Dietmar Fuchs @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/06/15/the-diving-bezel-the-most-versatile-watch-complication-even-if-you-are-not-a-diver/
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So you like the look of a diving watch, but you’re not a diver. Is the bezel still useful?
Modern daily life provides enough moments to use the bezel as a timer: the perfectly boiled egg or the ultimate al dente pasta, the “no towing limit” at a parking lot or, perhaps most importantly, when it’s time to pick up the kids at school.
I use my bezel quite often, just for the pleasure of using it.
But is there anything else we can use the diving bezel for other than measuring and checking lengths of time? You bet!
Using the bezel as a compass
Saving the best for last, we can use the diving bezel to transform the watch into a compass. Set the bezel’s triangular reference marker between the hour hand and 12 o’clock. Then point the hour hand at the sun. In the Northern Hemisphere, the reference marker is now pointing south; in the Southern Hemisphere the marker is pointing north.
And this actually works even better under water than on land as it is easier to see the sun – or at least the center of the brightest light at the surface.
Using the bezel as a second time zone
Diving for many is connected to traveling: warm water, tropical reefs, and perhaps wrecks to explore. For most of us (and indeed for me in central Europe), the best vacation spots for divers are far away – hours away, both in travel time and from GMT. So divers are well served with a second time zone on their watches.
Nothing easier than that as a second time zone function is available by using the bezel of your diver’s watch. If you know how to use it.
As a diver you don’t really want to unscrew and pull out the crown all the time. This weakens the seal and might ruin even the best diver’s watch. To set a second time zone on the bezel all we have to do is keep the time set on the hands and put the bezel’s reference marker at 12 o’clock.
Now we only need to remember this easy rhyme: west is best and east is least.
Example I: we want to dive Puerto Rico’s south coast, the famous Puerto Rico Trench. Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Lesser Antilles have a five-hour time difference from my home in Germany – and lie to the west. So we move the bezel to 5 o’clock – five hours forward (west is best).
Now the bezel’s reference marker becomes the 12 o’clock marking in our head and thus in our example the hour hand indicates 5:11, exactly five hours earlier than German time (10:11).
Example II: to dive in the Maldives for me means flying east (is least). So I set the reference marker back four hours (to 8 o’clock), putting the local time on my virtual second time zone function to 4:11.
This might seem complicated if you’re just reading the description, but that’s only because as watch aficionados we’re so used to the hand position in relation to 12 o’clock. Changing that perception is a piece of cake.
On your next trip, once you have buckled in and listened attentively to the safety lecture, say to yourself, “West is best, east is least.” And then set the bezel accordingly (yes, on a diver’s watch you have to set “the best” counterclockwise!)
I promise that by the time the aircraft touches down you will have the new setup of your (now) double-time-zone watch ingrained in your brain.
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Credits: Article and images by Dietmar Fuchs @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/06/15/the-diving-bezel-the-most-versatile-watch-complication-even-if-you-are-not-a-diver/