Well, it's felt like an eternity waiting for the ceramic bezel to arrive from Stowa but it's finally here. I placed the order for the watch back in September and it got here pretty quickly with the temporary aluminum bezel inlay. After waiting through supplier holdups, illness, and customs delays I finally received the bezel in the mail today.
So first things first...changing the bezel. What a pain it was at first but now is simple to do. If you look at the pic below, I've highlighted two things with one arrow: one, the scratches I made in the old bezel and, 2) exactly where the knife needs to go to pop off the bezel. Stupidly, I thought the metal ring below the ridges (where the scratches are) was part of the watch...it's part of the bezel, obviously. Hence the scratches...so be careful.
So, anyway, here's the new bezel on the watch:
Not the best pics (squiggly piece of lint on crystal included at no extra charge) but you get the idea. Obviously the ceramic inlay is much more reflective than the aluminum one...here's another shot for comparison:
The reflectivity works well on this watch because the dial and edges of the hands are so reflective already. The reflectivity is not an issue with legibility...this was a big concern of mine before I bought the watch but everything about the watch is great. The new bezel is fantastic and is much blacker than the aluminum one. This might actually be in the aluminum bezel's favor as it matched the dial color more closely. I liked the aluminum bezel well enough but I really like the ceramic one...it suits this particular watch better. Not sure if that "shiny" of a bezel is something I'd want on all my watches but with this one it's perfect.
Hope this helps if you're still debating about getting this watch.
Rob