What Is A Fluted Bezel On A Watch?

If you’re new to the watch-collecting hobby, you’ve undoubtedly seen or heard references to watches with fluted bezels, but what does that description actually mean? Are fluted bezels a feature of sports watches or dress watches, of watches for men or for ladies? Are they designed for practical use or purely as an aesthetic touch? As is common in the world of watches, the answers to all of these questions are not as simple as you might think. 

Before getting into the fluted type in particular, let’s get really basic and review what a watch’s bezel is and what it’s for. As we explore in more detail here, a bezel is the front part of a watch’s case (often but not always ring-shaped) that frames the dial and secures the crystal. Bezels can be made of the same material as the case middle and/or the caseback, but can also be made of a different material. They can also be thin or wide; stationary or built to rotate in either one direction or both; purely decorative (i.e., set with diamonds) or utilitarian in nature (i.e., inscribed with a scale for some type of calculation).

Fluting is defined as “a groove or set of grooves forming a surface decoration,” so a fluted bezel is one that features this type of grooved or ribbed texture on its top surface. Initially, as with most every element of a watch, a fluted bezel design was designed with a practical purpose in mind: the grooved surface made it easier for a watchmaker to screw the bezel tightly into the case to improve water resistance. However, improvements in the waterproofing of cases eventually made such a feature redundant, and the fluted bezel is today regarded almost universally as decorative rather than functional. (Some fluting still serves a utilitarian role in modern watchmaking, however, like when it’s used on the sides of a winding crown, or on the edges — not the top surface — of the rotating bezel of a divers’ watch; both are designed to allow an easier, more secure grip for a wearer’s fingers while operating them.)

Rolex 

The watch believed to be the first to utilize a fluted bezel is one that you’ve likely heard mentioned in connection with other watchmaking firsts, i.e., the first waterproof case — the original Rolex Oyster (above) in 1926. As noted above, the fluting on that groundbreaking timepiece was in the service of keeping the watch’s movement protected from moisture that might otherwise enter the case. Rolex continued to use the fluted bezel as a signature feature in subsequent years, ushering in probably the most famous watch equipped with one, the Rolex Datejust, in 1945. The Datejust (modern example below) was the first “Oyster Perpetual” model from Rolex, fitted with both the Oyster case and the Crown’s self-winding “perpetual” movement, one of the first of its type. It was also the first watch with a date display, and several generations later, in 1948, it introduced the world to the magnifying “Cyclops” lens over said date display. When you mention a fluted bezel on a watch, the Datejust, today offered in dozens of iterations, is the model most enthusiasts think of first. 

The Datejust begat the Day-Date in 1956, which was the first wristwatch that displayed both the date (in the now-familiar 3 o’clock position under the Cyclops lens) and the day of the week (in a curved window above the Rolex logo at 12 o’clock). Nicknamed the “President,” as it has graced the wrist of many a chief executive, the Day-Date, then and now, features the same fluted bezel as the Datejust and is similarly regarded as a classic of dress watches. And while many of Rolex’s most iconic and coveted watches from its sport-luxury “Professional” collection eschew the fluted bezel for more tool-oriented designs — i.e., 60-minute dive scale on the Submariner, 24-hour GMT scale on the GMT-Master, tachymeter on the Daytona — newer models like the annual-calendar-equipped Sky-Dweller and vintage-inspired Land-Dweller (below) continue to incorporate it into their designs.

As of 2025, there are three different types of fluted bezel in the Rolex catalog: the Day-Date and Datejust have 72 flutes; the 1908 has 180; and the Land-Dweller and Sky-Dweller have 60. The fewer flutes, the more prominent they appear. So, where the 1908 might almost seem like a coin edge, this isn't the case with the broad/wide flutes on the Land-Dweller.

Fluted Bezel Vs. Smooth Bezel

As for fluted bezel versus smooth bezel, there is certainly a premium to be had for the fluted bezel. Take the Rolex Datejust 36 in steel, for example. The smooth-bezel model retails for $7,950 while the fluted bezel jumps to $9,550. This is, of course, also due to the fact that Rolex only does fluted bezels in precious metal so the steel Datejust does indeed have a white-gold fluted bezel.

While Rolex is the most well-known and influential adopter of the fluted bezel, it is of course not the only watch brand that has them in its repertoire of timepieces. Below are some notable others that are on the market today.

Omega Constellation Globemaster

The Omega Constellation Globemaster, the first watch to receive Omega’s “Master Chronometer” certification, takes design cues from earlier models in the Constellation collection: the “pie pan” dial echoes that of a vintage Omega Constellation from 1952; and the fluted bezel is derived from that of another model from 1968. The 39-mm case is available in stainless steel, yellow gold, two-tone steel and yellow gold, and Omega’s proprietary Sedna gold, with two polished bevels connecting the edges of the lugs to the bezel. The “Master Chronometer” movement, Caliber 8900, meets not only the strict precision requirements of Swiss testing agency COSC, but additional standards established by Omega and METAS, the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology, which include functioning while exposed to magnetic fields up to 15,000 Gauss. 

Tudor Royal

Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf established its more affordable sibling brand, Tudor, back in 1926 and introduced the watch that inspired today’s Tudor Royal that same year.. The Royal, which was first called by that name in 1950, is one of Tudor’s dressier watches while still fairly “sporty-chic” in its design, with its fluted stationary bezel and sunray-finish dial with Roman numeral hour markers. The largest iteration of the Tudor Royal, at 41mm, features a day-of-the-week display in an arched window at 12 o’clock and a small date aperture at 3 o’clock, a layout no doubt inspired by the original Day-Date “President.” The movement is the ETA-based Caliber T603, with a modest but solid 38-hour power reserve.

Oris Big Crown ProPilot X

One of the flagships of Oris’s varied and versatile collection of timepieces is the aviation-inspired Big Crown ProPilot, whose familiar hallmarks include a very distinctive, fluted bezel texture, which the brand says was originally designed to resemble a jet’s turbines. It also sports a large, fluted, screw-down crown, which recalls those of early pilots’ watches and a double-domed sapphire crystal covering a wide, legible dial. In 2022, Oris added a 39mm ProPilot to the collection, which also became the first models to be equipped with the brand’s in-house Caliber 400, introduced in 2020, which among its various features includes a 120-hour (5-day) power reserve, an antimagnetic structure, and a COSC chronometer certification.

Bulova Super Seville

Joining Bulova’s expanding lineup of vintage revivals in 2024, the Super Seville is remembered by nostalgic watch buffs as a “budget” version of Rolex’s Day-Date — combining appealing features like a fluted bezel, an integrated bracelet, and a magnifying lens over the date window with a quartz movement and an accordingly more attainable price point. With the new Super Seville models, Bulova has achieved the most compact case sizes yet for a watch outfitted with its high-frequency Precisionist movement — just 38mm in diameter, in the rounded square dimensions that defined the original models, integrated into a stylish three-link bracelet with a pronounced taper. Several colorways are available, all featuring a sloping, fluted bezel; baton hands and indexes; a quirky minute track on the flange with Roman numerals at the 5-minute markers; and a magnifying lens over the 3 o’clock date display.

Tissot Ballade Powermatic 80

A handsome and elegantly understated dress watch, Tissot’s Ballade is recognizable by the engine-turned patterns on its sloping, fluted bezel and by the long, faceted diamond-shaped hands on the dial. The bezel of the Powermatic 80 Silicium version features a fluted motif that calls to mind that of the more famous (and far more expensive) Datejust, and its automatic ETA-based movement boasts not only the 80-hour power reserve of others in the expanding Powermatic family of calibers but also a silicon (aka “Silicium”) balance spring for increased magnetic resistance and hence, increased timekeeping precision.

Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Chronograph

Parmigiani Fleurier’s Tonda PF collection is characterized by a purist aesthetic inspired by the Golden Ratio. The sport-oriented Tonda PF Sport Chronograph, successor to the Tonda GT,  has a refreshed look that brings these chronographs more in line with the original Tonda’s luxurious character. The 42-mm stainless steel case has a hand-knurled platinum bezel with more pronounced fluting than the GT models, the large date is now absent to accommodate a more prominent “PF” applique at 12 o’clock, and the clou triangulaire textural motif on the dial (here in the panda-style “London Grey” colorway) is more discreet and subtly executed. The in-house,  COSC-certified 5 Hz Caliber PF070 ticks inside the case, amassing 68 hours of power reserve and sporting a new, skeletonized rotor that is designed to resemble the steering wheel of a Ferrari 250 GTO.

What can you expect of a watch with a fluted bezel? Because of its most famous adopters, the Day-Date and Datejust, its presence is usually (but not always) an indicator that the watch is more dressy than sporty. Because of the grooved pattern occupying its surface and/or sides, it’s unlikely your watch’s bezel will incorporate any kind of scale, like a tachymeter for calculating speed, a 60-minute ring for setting dive times, or a 24-hour ring for indicating the time in another time zone. (There are historical exceptions even to this rule, however, like Rolex’s influential but mostly forgotten Turn-o-Graph, above, which attempted to add functional markings on a Datejust-like fluted bezel). By design, a fluted bezel usually needs to be on the wider side, so if a wide, expansive dial with minimal bezel framing is your thing, this style is probably not for you. If, on the other hand, you’re concerned about visible scratches or dents that your watch might acquire throughout its lifetime, the fluted texture is much better at hiding such blemishes than a flat-surfaced one.