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Sunday, August 10, 2008

The Many Faces of Rolex Bezels, Customizing Your Rolex Watch

By Jonathan Zach


It's no secret that Rolex watches set the standard for luxury timepieces, being the choice for discriminating individuals for over a century. Indeed, the Rolex name has become synonymous with superb design, craftsmanship, reliability, and performance and people all over the world choose Rolex chronographs not only because they measure time with exquisite accuracy, but they also measure the wearer's sense of style and professional accomplishments. A Rolex chronograph gracing a wrist anywhere throughout the world implies that the wearer will settle only for the very best and has the financial means to get it.

Customizing your Rolex Watch

These days, Rolex owners have many more options for customizing their Rolex watches than were available just a generation ago. Rolex customization options not only express a sense of individuality and style, but also add significant value to an owner's investment. Artisan jewelers are responding to this demand by offering customized Rolex dials, bezels, bracelets, lugs, clasps, and other watch components inspired by the Rolex owners imagination and the jewelers skills.

Customized Rolexes sport precious and semi-precious gemstones on the clasps, mother of pearl dials inlaid with different cuts of diamonds, bracelets crafted from precious metals, and bezels accented with a variety of gems. This article focuses on customizing your Rolex watch with a variety of different bezels to add a bit of panache and make it uniquely yours.

Rolex Bezels

A bezel is the ring that surrounds the watch face and holds the crystal in place. In many cases, the bezel rotates and enhances the functionality of the watch. But for many Rolex owners, the bezel presents another opportunity for customization. Initially, customized Rolex bezels were commissioned by fashion-conscious ladies who wanted to make their Rolex truly unique and challenge their favorite jewelers with increasingly elaborate designs. Today, many men are choosing to enhance the value of their Rolexes with customized bezels and skilled jewelers the world over are responding to this trend and making Rolex bezels that catch the eye from across a room.

Let's start with the metal options for bezels. 18K gold is the most popular choice year after year as its luster, feel, and ability to enhance the look of precious gems have endured for millennia. 18K white gold bezels are the second most popular as they impart the same warm feel on the skin as yellow gold but have a beauty that is more understated while still providing the desired properties of elegance and malleability. In recent years, artisan jewelers have responded to demand by crafting custom Rolex bezels in other metals such as platinum, titanium, and even stainless steel.

Rolex bezels customized with gemstones elevate the trend to another level. Diamonds are, and always have been, the gemstones of choice for Rolex bezels, with emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and other precious gems rounding out the field. Rolex owners are also increasingly commissioning custom bezels with other gems, namely amethyst, topaz, moonstone, garnet, citrine, peridot, tourmaline, polished coral, ivory, and even fossils!

The cut of the Rolex bezel also displays a wearer's personal taste. The gemstones are fashioned in the traditional marquise, crown, pavilion, Old Single, Briolette, emerald, pear, and baguette cuts. However, demand drives innovation and new gem-cutting equipment and techniques allow even more elaborate designs, such as Navettes, French cuts, trapezes, triangle cuts, octahedrons, and gems cuts with concave facets.

Today, there are more options for customizing your Rolex watch than ever before and jewelers must take extra care that the customized bezels and other watch components are crafted with the same workmanship, quality of materials, and precision that is synonymous with the Rolex name. This craftsmanship and attention to detail presents a unique challenge for artisan jewelers all over the world, inspiring them to rise above and beyond their current mastery of the trade to please the creative quest of their discerning clientele. If there is one prevailing theme to customizing your Rolex, it wouldn'nt be ?form follows function?; it would be ?form fuels the imagination!?

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