With me a bezel can be either bald or rotating since I never use a mobile bezel.

 

Depends on the style. Decorative/framing is fine for me, but rotating (60 minutes or 12 hours) are also useful.

 

I can't accept a fixed bezel etched with compass markings or anything other than 1 - 12 (for hours) or 60 minutes. Those can sort of make sense for visual aesthetic, but anything else is relatively pointless.

 

Tachymetré?

 

Rotatable bezels are more fun, but not a must-have.

 

I love functional, rotating bezels--mainly minutes, 12H or 24H on a GMT. I'm not fond of compass bezels and consider them a pure gimmick. a GrillTimer though....

 

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This is hands down, without a doubt, unmistakably, absolutely the most useful bezel I have ever seen on a watch!!

And the fact that the watch is sauce resistant is a stroke of genius.

 

I prefer a marked rotating bezel though it depends on the watch, I.E. Rolex Explorer. But absolutely NO directional bezels.

 

I have no problem with these.

To me a fixed bezel means "No backplay"......

 

I’m good with plain smooth, rotating timing, fixed time, tachymeter, and even the slide rule. The non-plain ones are decorative for me. I’m out on a compass bezel.

 

Either or for me — I'm good with both.

 

Is a fixed bezel a useless ornament at best?
Or, does it have a place in your collection?

What if it is engraved with 12 hours? Does that matter?
Etc.

Examples: Plifer'd pics

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I'm probably the one getting this wrong, but here's my take. Almost every watch has a bezel, and they all serve a purpose- to frame the dial, surround the crystal and help hold it in place. Beyond that, there's no reason for a watch to have etching on the bezel if it's not a GMT, chronograph (tachymeter) or diver. In my world, the Seals and Panerai are fine, the Tissot and B&M do not get bought, as their etching serves no function that isn't already on the dial.

Strangely enough, my 16264 has a rotating, relief-etched bezel but is not a diver or GMT. It took me months to figure out why that particular reference kept appealing to me, and one day it hit me- I'd been seeing gaps between endlink and case in some 5-digit images, but on this one they're hidden beneath the larger bezel. I also have a weird psychological preference for solid endlinks, and this reference made that point moot as well. So there's function there, but only for me.

 

I like all of the aforementioned styles. However, I prefer that a bezel with 12 hour markings be rotatable.

All bezels are rotatable except 1st watch.

 

Fixed bezel plain or with 1-12 even a 24 hr for gmt.

 

I could go either way if the watch is not going to be used for any type of timing. The examples posted by Chrono show stick indices on the dial and then numbers on the bezel. This works to my eye. But if both the dial and bezel had numbers on it I would find this overkill. I could also go bald as in something like a Longines Conquest.

 

If it looks cool and makes sense in the context of the theme of the watch I'm all for it (e.g. tachy on a racing related watch, compass on an exploration themed watch, etc.).

I couldn't care less about the functionality itself because I only use watches to tell time.

 

I make a lot of use of a rotating bezel, so there we go. On my daily I like that the bezel is both rotating and bidirectional. Makes it easy to switch from a different TZ to timing anything.
Cheers

 

TL;DR: if the watch is not a chronograph, I do not care about the bezel, and probably don’t care about the watch either.

I wear chronographs ALMOST exclusively.

The bezel of my favorite chronograph in my collection is plain, simply providing a platform to which the crystal can be secured. Others have a nearly useless but appropriate-for-a-chronograph Tachymeter bezel that is fixed (has to be fixed for purpose of use). Think Speedmaster, Daytona, etc. I don’t mind these.

If the bezel is fixed and has hours (or something other than a tachymeter), I’m likely to dislike it for its lack of function and design-only purpose. If it rotates, I’ll probably like it assuming it serves some function. On a chronograph with no elapsed hours counter on the dial, a bi-directional rotating bezel with a 12-hour scale is my favorite. I can line up the marker at 12 with the current hour hand immediately after engaging the chronograph, and read elapsed hours off of the bezel. If the bezel is a 60 minute track, both countdown and elapsed minutes are acceptable but the countdown bezel is much more preferred. I rarely (never?) need to track elapsed time from the chronograph and the bezel at the same time.

 

I tend to like slightly thicker bezels framing a dial rather than the "all dial" look. I also like that it can be used as a design element as well. I like the Bvlgari Octo and Bvlgari Bvlgari bezels even. One of my favorite bezels is the Navitimer 8 41mm watch as it is functional, thicker, and clean with only a small mark at 12 to mark time. People complained about that saying it was pointless not having other markers but I tend to use the dial markers anyway instead of bezel markers if I use the bezel and when they added additional markers to appease hurt the design of the watch. I also tend to like Breitling bezel designs because the watches don't look like divers but have metal rotatable timing bezels. Just as I've never been a lyrics guy for music with the singing just turning into another musical sound the exact marking on the bezel I tune out and they are just markings so It doesn't matter if it's compass markings or dots I can use them to time things if needed or enjoy the design.

I can totally do fixed bezels as well like in the 1st picture in the original post if I like the look of the watch. I'm not the biggest fan of colored bezels like dive bezels but I still have plenty of them. I almost never buy all dial watches as I just need some pretty metal to look at and it frames the dial making it look more centered on the wrist and can make a big watch wear smaller. I'm a design guy (my preference in design) rather than a function guy so I buy what speaks to me and if the bezel is useable it's a great bonus. The bezel is a decoration to me and can even be functional.

Some I like. Not to everybody's taste I'm well aware but I like them.

 

It really depends on the watch and its intended purpose...

 

Here's one with NO bezel whatsoever (I like it a lot myself)

 

Is a fixed bezel a useless ornament at best?
Or, does it have a place in your collection?

What if it is engraved with 12 hours? Does that matter?
Etc.

Examples: Plifer'd pics

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View attachment 18327464 View attachment 18327472

Depends on the watch for me. if it’s a field, pilot or sports watch, I’m not sure why you would want a bezel, and fixed numbered bezels make no sense to me. On a dive watch, sure - though i don’t mind compressor-style watches with internal timing bezels, though i don’t happen to own any.

 

Rotating bezels = good

Your Baume and Mercier example wouldn't bother me (if that bezel doesn't rotate). But the Tissot would bug the heck out of me. If it has numbers and is that wide, it's gotta rotate! Reminds me of a few (otherwise good) Casios and Citizens that look like they have timing bezels but don't rotate.

My first Seiko was this black SKX mod (orange hand) because I wasn't sure if I liked chunky dive-time bezels. Over time, I got used to diving bezels and much prefer those now, since the "plain" bezel looks too wide and empty for the style of watch.

Since the Tissot PRX is a 70s-esque small sports watch, thin bezel with no numbers all the way My Stratton below is a little weird with the hours being marked but I can at least do the math and count minutes with it.

 

Countdown bezel or don’t even bother. (The sauce-resistant example counts.)

 

 

I have the tag formula 1 and it doesn’t rotate.

 

My favorite bezel function is "protecting the crystal" meaning that it's slightly higher than the crystal.

It's cool when it rotates and you can time something, or just use it as an impromptu compass.

But here is my favorite function, exemplified by my Citizen EO2020-08E:

It's such a simple thing but I really enjoy watches that give me this extra safe feeling.

 

bald framing is the only thing that matters. it is the truth. the alpha and the omega.