People seem to think there is some sort of unwritten rule where you must wear your watch on your left wrist. To do anything else is just barbaric. The truth is, this is nonsense. You can wear your watch on whatever wrist you want. There are no rules.
Does It Mean Anything If You Do This?
Wearing your watch on your right arm means nothing, apart from that this is the arm you have chosen to wear you watch.
It has no correlation to your personality. It doesn’t make you more or less confident or outgoing or any other sort of psychological reasoning. I have seen so many things like this and I’m sorry, but it really is just made up mumbo jumbo.
Is There A Correct Wrist To Wear Your Watch?
Simply, no. You can wear your watch on whatever wrist you find most comfortable.
It is suggested you should wear it on your non-dominant arm so that it is basically out of the way. This is pretty sensible. Watches are delicate and it probably is going to be put in less stressful positions being on your non-dominate hand.
However, we need to remember that around 90% of people are right handed, so the vast majority of peoples non-dominate hand is the left side. If most of us try and wear our watch on the non-dominant hand, that is a lot of watches on the left wrist.
I fully believe that this is where the myth that your left hand is the “correct” hand. It is just simply because most people wear their watch on the left hand and it somehow got turned into some sort of social rule.
Really you should just wear your watch on whatever arm feels most natural or comfortable.
While many people will find this is their non-dominant hand, there are plenty of lefties who wear their watch on the left and plenty of righties who wear theirs on the right.
If you wanted to swap wrists now you could. It would feel strange at first, but after a few days it would be totally normal. The biggest issue you might face is the muscle memory. I know from 30yrs of checking my left wrist, I would automatically look that way. It might be a hard habit to break, but I’m sure you would slowly start to learn.
(You can read more about – Will Wearing Watches Go Out Of Style?)
The Crown
There is an argument that the position of the crown is important and shows what wrist you should wear the watch.
Normally the crown is on the right hand side of the watch. When the watch is on your wrist, you can easily access the crown with your right hand, which is true. The thing is, it is not advisable to mess around with the crown while it is on your wrist. It is much safer to remove the watch from your wrist and then use the crown.
This means you will be holding the watch in the left hand and using the crown with your right, but that doesn’t mean you need to wear it in this way.
Some watches come with the crown on the opposite side and are called left handed watches. Again, it doesn’t matter. All this means is that you are going to be winding the crown or setting the time with your left hand, while you hold it in your right hand, after this it doesn’t matter what wrist you put the watch on.
I would also go as far to say that I would be able to easily access the crown on either side of the watch, regardless of what side the watch it was on, or what hand I had it one. I think we also need to look at most digital watches; they often have pushers on both sides. So these must be watches you can wear on either arm? Or can you only access half the functions and if you want the other half, you need to switch arms? It doesn’t quite make sense does it!
The position of the crown or the pushers is not an indicator to what side you should wear your watch.
Wearing Your Watch On the Underside Of Your Wrist
Some people like to wear their watch so that the watch face is on the bottom of their wrist.
This comes from soldiers who would do this so they could still see the time, while holding a gun. Wearing a watch in this way also stops reflections from shining outwards and giving away their position.
As for us normal people, you can wear your watch this way if you want. However, it’s not the most practical, especially if you are sat a table. You will be rubbing the watch face on the table all day long, which isn’t ideal and can increase the chances of scratches.
Conclusion
You can wear your watch on any hand you want. If are not used to wearing a watch, just try both sides and see what feels best. Maybe you want to take the advice of wearing it on your non-dominate hand, maybe you find it more comfortable on your other hand. It doesn’t matter; just do whatever you feel works best. If anyone tries to judge you for it, then they are just a watch snob and should certainly be ignored.
Always remember you should wear a watch for yourself and enjoy it for yourself. There are no rules and you can do as you want.
(You can read more about – Watch Wearing Mistakes You Should Avoid)
Ian is the main writer at Horology Dream and is a lover all things watch related.
He has been a watch collector for over a decade and brings his knowledge and experience to this site to help you on your own watch collecting journey.
You can connect with him on Social media and talk anything watches or read more about him on his Author Page.
