The optical (BVRI) monitoring data covering 5 years for 12 x-ray-selec
ted BL Lac objects are presented in this paper. The main results are:
(1) IE 0317+178 has shown a variability of 0.53 mag in R band on a tim
e scale of about 1.93 days. (2) A variability of 0.58 mag within 5 min
was recorded in the V band for H 0548-322. Our results would be valua
ble to understand the relation between XBLs and RBLs. (C) 1996 America
n Astronomical Society.