Just curious
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on July 1, 2008 – 9:10 AM112 Comments
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I’m a lefty. I wear my watch on my right hand and I agree that it’s because I needed to use my dom hand to put the damn thing on. I also carry a tote in my right hand, and wear a shoulderbag on my right shoulder.
And I’ve met quite a few righties who look at my hands and say, “You’re wearing your watch wrong, you know.” Yes, but it makes such a nice imprint across your cheek when I *whap* you with my wrist, does it not?
Sarah I am with you on the cell phone thing. I think it’s different for guys, because it’s in their pocket, but hell if I’m going to burrow through my (bit large) handbag, take off Keyboard Lock (it’s a BB phone) and THEN find out what time it is.
Plus, all you non-watch wearing folks: When you ask “What’s today’s date?” and I am the one who knows immediately with a flick of the wrist? Thank my watch. :o)
I’m right-handed, and when I wore a watch, it was on my right wrist. However, I’m terrible about running into walls, so I was forever cracking the faces and snagging the bands. My sisters gave me a really nice watch pendant that I wore for a long time, until I broke that too somehow. Mostly I just rely on cellphones now. (Although I drop those all the time. I should really not be allowed to have nice things.)
My sister and I are mirror twins, so she’s left-handed, and she wears her watch on her left wrist.
I wear mine on my non-dominant wrist, the left, and I wear it face-down. I wear it on my non-dominant hand because it gets in the way when writing if I wear it on my right hand. I don’t know why I wear it face down, I just always have. And I wouldn’t dream of not wearing a watch. For me, putting it on is as instinctive as putting on a shirt. It takes longer to root through a bag for a phone than it does to flip my wrist over, and I can’t stand not knowing what time it is – I am ruthlessly prompt, usually early.
One of my friends in high school was a lefty and her handwriting was nondescript (except she used ballpoints that wouldn’t smear from her dragging her arm across the page), except when she made check marks, she made them backwards. I always thought that was funny.
“You dog-ear pages? For shame!”
It’s the way I express love.
…It is!
(My mother just sat bolt upright somewhere and she doesn’t even know why, but…this is why. Dog-ears or leaving a book open and face-down = Not Done, but now that I’m grown I do it all the time.)
I always wear it on my non-dom hand because it’s easier to fasten the buckle with my dom hand.
I’m Celli’s sister, and I hardly ever wear a watch anymore because I also cannot be trusted with nice things. (What? No, that’s not my lunch you see on my white skirt, why do you ask?) My reason is more practical–a watch on my right wrist bumps my wrist rest on my mouse. If I wear anything on that wrist, I have to take it off while I work.
Celli, you broke the pendant? BAD Celli!
I wear my watch on my left wrist, facing up, and I’m a righty. This thread reminded me to change the date from 31 to 1, which I did, with ease, with my dominant hand. The stem does still come into play, even in the modern age.
You will pry my BlackBerry from my cold, dead hands, but I also still write on paper. Even though I’ve been an editor for years, I always have a reporter’s notebook in my briefcase, and that’s what I use for taking notes in meetings, making grocery lists, etc.
I recently went back to wearing a wristwatch, after relying on cellphone clock for a couple of years, and I always wear it on my dominant (left) hand. I’ve never before actually heard that it “should” be worn on the non-dominant hand. I think I learned to wear mine on the left because mom&dad wore theirs on the left (they’re right-handed). Bracelets go on my right hand because it’s’ impossible to fasten them with my right (though I hate bracelets anyway).
Wearing the watch on the wrong hand might explain why I’ve broken/scratched/drenched several watches though…
I’m left-handed, as is/was my mother before me, and her mother before her. We all wear our watches on our right wrists, because it’s much easier to see it and to avoid hitting it on things. And I always thought wearing a watch with the face on the inside of your wrist is kinda prissy.
My family was proud of my left-handedness, so I was never trained to use my right hand, but some things are built to be lop-sided (thanks a lot, auto makers) and so I think left-handed people use their right hands more than right-handed people use their lefts.
I don’t expect things to be designed exclusively for the left hand, but I hate to see a product made to be used only by the right hand that doesn’t need to be. Like a ladle with a spout on just one side. So they don’t get my money, which is the best way I can vote against that stuff.
I’m a righty and wear my watch on my non-dom wrist. And I can’t imagine not wearing a watch. I use it every day at work to check the date (everything I do is based on dates and two-week deadlines). Plus I feel naked without it (and unfinished without a belt unless I’m wearing pants w/o beltloops).
I wear bracelets on my right wrist so it’s not to keep my wrist free of “stuff”. I think I was just told to wear it like that by my parents when I was young and have always kept it that way.
RE: Righty-trained lefties
My mom is from a family of ten, and five of them (including her) are lefties. I’m pretty sure she mentioned the nuns (in roughly the early ’60s) trying to train her to write with her right hand, but she refused. At least one of her fellow left-handed siblings is extremely left-dominant, to the point of almost non-functionality with his right hand. My mom tries to learn new skills with her right hand because it’s easier to “relearn” with her left hand, then – plus she’s then somewhat ambidextrous. No idea if I spelled that correctly.
I think it was pretty common up until around that time (mid ’60s?) for schools to try to get lefties to be righies. Weren’t left-handed people lauded or something in ancient Egypt? Or is that where they were reviled? I really need to watch more Jeopardy.
I’m left-handed, and I’ve always worn my watch on my right wrist. I’m pretty sure it started as being just because my mom told me to, but now I can’t imagine switching wrists. It would feel way too weird.
Interesting that lefty desks came up though, as I can’t stand them and will often move desks around in order to avoid using one.
Hee! Sars will be getting a lovely variety of bookmarks in her Christmas stocking this year.
Big time righty here. There is precious little I can do with my non-dom hand/arm, so even if my mom hadn’t told me to wear my watch left, I would have had to do so out of necessity. I can’t even carry a purse on my left shoulder. I’ve tried and it slides off every time. I can, however, hold a book left and turn the pages one-handed – a skill born of many, many meals eaten with my right hand while my nose was buried in a novel.
@ Katie, I think the re-training of lefties was a bit more common a few decades ago. My lefty uncle was in elementary school in the late ’50s, early ’60s and I remember a family story about one of his teachers pressing him to write right-handed. Luckily, my lefty aunt, who is three years his elder, had somehow escaped the re-programming and was able to help him learn to use his left hand. To this day, though, his handwriting is quite a challenge to decipher.
Dominant arm with watch face on inside of wrist. I’m an EMT and (like Liz C.’s mom) I find I can check time more easily and more surreptitiously with the face on the inside. Since everyone I work with is required to wear a watch as part of the EMT uniform, I’ve noticed that the way I wear mine is unusual. I’ve never seen anyone else with the face on the inside and very few with the watch on the dominant arm.
Well I just thought that most people wear their watches on their left wrists, and since that’s the non-dominant hand for most folks, there you go. Why the left wrist? I have no idea.
Before reading this poll question and the responses, I had never heard of people being *instructed* to wear a watch on their non-dominant hand. Nobody ever said a thing to me about which wrist to wear my watch on.
I wear bracelet-type watches that are kind of loose so the face may be palm side or back-of-hand side depending on how I am holding my arm.
Re: dog-ears – I am a librarian and if you dog-ear a liberry book I will hunt you down and have you taken out to the parking lot by my goons and roughed up. But if the book is your own: do as you will, write in it, highlight, leave lipstick kisses, dog-ears, paperclips, whatev. And a worn book is a loved book, a la Velveteen Rabbit.
Lefty here, wear watch on left wrist, face up.
That is, I *used* to. These days I somehow suck all the energy out of watch batteries within 2 or 3 weeks, I can’t find a wind-up watch anywhere, and I can’t afford one of those eco-watches that are powered by the motions of your arm/hand.
So until I can find a good, clean, small wind-up watch like those great little Timexs from the 80s, I simply ask a lot of other people what time it is.
I write left but not with bent hand – that looks sooo painful to me when other lefties do that. My father, a lefty engineer, taught me how to write with a straight hand – and also how to write on a chalk/whiteboard without getting all dirty, lefthanded! Ha! :)
It’s difficult as hell to write with a watch on your writing hand! Why would anyone wear it like that?
I wear mine on my left (non-dom) hand. For the longest time I had given up on watches because they bump the keyboard when I’m typing and I had the time in front of me if I’m at a computer, which I constantly was for work. Now that I’m back in school, though, I’ve gone back to wearing a watch because I hate having my cellphone out on my desk to keep an eye on the time. I feel like the professor will feel less like I am distracted by time checking/possible incoming calls if I just wear a watch and keep the phone in my bag (and off) where it belongs. But this is entirely based on my own feelings about cellphones on desks when I’m teaching, so it could all be in my head.
Right-handed, left wristwatched. I love my Bulova, it is a symbol of a job I once thought was Teh Bomb (it was wretched), and I bought it on a beautiful day when I was with The Object of my Affections. Watches have a concrete significance no cell will ever supplant, for some of us.
@Tixie, I bought The Object a Skagen and he loves it. Thanks to our LDR (and his forgetfulness on our last VISIT), I’ve never SEEN IT on him, but I do like the general aesthetic of that brand.
In a similar vein, thanks to bursitis (I half love being an old enough lady to talk about my bursitis), I did the unthinkable a few years ago, and switched purse shoulders. This was wrong and difficult and awkward, and came at a time when I was in the process of actually switching purses too (I don’t care for an entire wardrobe of bags; I carry one, most days, and have tiny little part-timers for evening wear), so it was a hard adjustment. Now, occasionally, I do switch back for one reason or another (long shopping days with mom …) and now my original shoulder – the right side – feels wrong and odd. But not as wrong and odd as my left felt, when I first had to switch. Oy.
I can’t hook the buckle with my non-dominant hand. That’s why I wear it on the non-dom. That and having something tight on my dominant wrist would probably make my hand numb faster on the days I cut out fabrics for 9 hours.
I’m a righty. Wear my watch on the left wrist. I just now tried fastening my watch to my right wrist, and while I could do it, I had to stop thinking about absolutely everything else and concentrate on the blasted clasp.
However, buttoning cuffs? I can button the right sleeve faster than the left.
I think you need a second poll that also breaks down preferences by handedness — is it just me or does it seem that more left-handers are wearing watches on their left hand? (That’s what I do).
So: I wear my watch:
on the wrist of my dominant right hand
on the wrist of my dominant left hand
on the wrist of my non-dominant right hand
on the wrist of my non-dominant left hand
Please? Now I’m curious.
I’m a lefty, and wear my watches on my left wrist. When I was a kid, many (most?) watches still needed to be wound. (And certainly the cheapy watches you would buy a kid.) The stem is always on the right side (as you face the watch), so wearing it on your left wrist makes it easiest to wind. If it were on my right wrist, I would have had to wrap my left hand around the top to wind it. (Or take it off.) Even today, digital watches have the controls set up so that they’re easier to access if the watch is on your left wrist.
Plus, if you’re a kid, you can only point the stem at people and pretend that you’re Spider-man if the watch is on your left wrist.
I’d only heard recently that some people thought lefties should wear their watches on the right. And some of the reasons raised here make sense (in particular the ease of fastening the watch with the dominant hand). But there’s no way I could switch now — it would just feel too strange.
I don’t wear a watch any more — I just use my cellphone to tell the time — but when I did it was on my non-dominant wrist. Something to do with writing with one hand and still being able to look at the other for the time. I think I was told that in grade school.
There was also some phase where it was cool to wear the watch with the face on the inside of your wrist, rather than on top. I don’t know why.
Question for the leftys here, do you use a computer mouse with your right hand, or left hand with the buttons reversed? I use my right hand, which makes so much more sense to me, because I can use the mouse AND write on a piece of paper at the same time! I also do not curl my hand around the paper to write, and barely survived the mis-late 80s with those horrible erasable pens, no matter how hard I tried to prevent it, the side of my hand was always blue!
I also can write on a chalk board without smudging, getting chalk all over my hand (graduate school chalk talks totally trained me on that).
Also, I don’t dog-ear books, mostly I remember the page number, but I have been known to put it open-face down on occasion.
Some things are built to be lop-sided (thanks a lot, auto makers) and so I think left-handed people use their right hands more than right-handed people use their lefts.
I agree. When I started to use computers at work, in my early 20s (yes, I am old) the default was – and still is, really – to have the mouse on the right side. After 15 years of point-and-click, I can give myself a pretty decent manicure. You know how you everntually have to switch the wand to your non-dom hand, and so your dominant hand looks like crap? Well, my right-hand muscles have developed over years of clicking, so… no longer a problem.
I think it’s sufficient payback for the shit we lefties have to take in a right-handed world.
I haven’t worn a watch in years; for some bizarre reason, about the time I hit puberty, watches started dying within a matter of days, including pendant watches and ring watches. Have never been able to find a watch that I (a) like enough to wear, (b) trust not to die on me in a few days, (c) won’t mind having spent the money if it DOES die on me, and (d) can buckle comfortably around my wrist.
When I did wear a watch, though – and I kept trying, using different brands and styles of watches, until I was in my 20s – I preferred to wear it on my left arm (my mother told me to) with the face turned inward. I read a book, written in the 40s or 50s I think, in which the lead female character was described as wearing her watch facing inward because the movement of the wrist to check the time was more graceful, elegant, and feminine than the “fist-like” position used to check the time when the watchface is on the upper side of the wrist. Since I was nearly 6′ tall by age 14 and possess as much natural/inherent grace as an armadillo on crack, ANYTHING to make me appear even the tiniest bit more feminine and delicate was okay by me.
In terms of lefties wearing watches and such on their left hands – I think a big reason I wear bracelets on my left hand now is that I mouse with my right and having anything on that wrist can make me absolutely crazy. Mostly, I don’t tend to feel put out over the fact that it’s a righty world, but the (relatively) new credit card machines with the pens attached to electronic screens are a bear to work as a lefty. They annoy me every time. I’ve just learned to ignore that there’s often ink on the bottom of my left hand, but the angle you have to hold those electronic pens at on a short leash is not comfy.
To JH in Calgary: Yeah, I get a lot of people in my bowling league who are very confused when they see me write. “But – you don’t bowl lefty!?” I actually had trouble in kindergarten because the teacher didn’t realize I was a lefty. Pretty early in the year, the teacher told my parents I was having trouble with cutting and my mom asked if I had been given lefty scissors. The teacher said no because I was a righty – when she gave me a ball, I threw it with my right hand. My parents had to go through a whole song and dance routine to convince her that I was really a lefty and just threw the ball righty because that’s how they did it. Oddly enough – I’m now more comfortable cutting righty than lefty. Also – I’m a librarian and for your stats: of the 10 youth services librarians in my department, I believe 3 are lefty.
I switch arms depending on how my wrists feel. I’m susceptible to tendinitis and I’m always typing or lugging around a couple of (heavy) kids, so sometimes my wrists get sore. My watch has a link band so it’s just as easy for me to fasten it on either wrist.
And speaking of watches, in the late 80s I had a finger watch that was pretty snazzy.
Another vote for stopped wearing watches because I can’t stand the bands breaking. Three watch bands in three months was my breaking point. I use my cell phone and just made a little pocket on the front of my purse for it (made my own purse so it would have handy little pockets that are actually handy.
Right handed, I wear my watch on my right hand. I don’t know why, I just always have done it that way, but I have had people assume I’m left handed and when they hear I’m not tell me I wear my watch on the “wrong” hand. My husband is left handed and up until last year wore his watch on his left hand – it was a neat bond we shared until he decided watch plus wedding ring was too much “bling” on one hand and switched it.
I’m right-handed and wear my watch on my right wrist. I started off wearing it on the left (when I first started wearing a watch and I would fumble terribly with the strap, and I still can’t do up bracelet catches on my right wrist). I broke my left wrist when I was 9 and had to move it over and never moved it back. I think probably because around that time my left eye stopped working so well and I developed the habit of mostly using my right eye to see.
I also have a fabric strap on my watch so problems with fumbling haven’t come up. Heh. (It’s a learner watch. The hands are labelled. It’s pretty awesome.)
seconding LTG, watches are (at least analog watches are) clearly designed to be worn on the left wrist, as this is the non-dominant hand for about 90% of the population. You can tell this because the little knob to adjust time date is actually reachable without removing the watch when it sits on your left hand. I always notice this when, being a lefty, I have to remove my watch from my right wrist to change the date. Which I need to do right now, as in my world it’s apparently been “June 31st” all day.
I should also note that I theoretically wear my watch on my right hand because it makes it less likely that I’m going to be uncomfortable and/or tear whatever paper I’m writing on when I drag my hand across the page writing as a lefty. That being said, now that I type pretty much everything, I just end up taking my watch off for long stretches of the day.
I wear my watch on my non-dom hand, but I have a friend who’s a nurse who wears hers on her dom hand for work-related reasons – something to do with counting pulses, I don’t know.
Also, Sars, I’m with you on the dog-earing. It’s completely a way of showing love.
I wear mine on my left (non-dominant) wrist, but I don’t think I ever thought about it until I read this. When I got my first watch, my great-grandmother told me that watches are supposed to be worn on the left like wedding rings, and that was that. I just thought it was The Right Way to wear a watch.
Of course, then I screw it all up by wearing the watch-face on the inside of my wrist. Ah, well.
I hardly ever actually wear my watch these days, though — it bugs me when I type, it seems excessive with my wedding & engagement rings, I work from home and so am generally near multiple clocks, etc. This thread kind of makes me want to go find a cute new watch and wear the hell out of it.
I wear my watch, when I wear it, on my non-dominant (left) wrist, but since I have my engagement ring on my left hand an no jewelry on my right hand, I wonder if I look blingly lopsided.
@drsue – I’m a righty (watch on the left) and I had the same problem with those damn erasable pens in the 80s. I can close my eyes and still perfectly envision the streaks of blue all along my little finger and the side of my hand. Ugh, those were awful!
Righty, watch on left wrist. The reason why I need it on the left: I have a problem with watches always being too big and they ride down and (Somehow, even though I’m a large burly six foot three man who wears size 14 shoes, I have wrists so slender that I have to have links removed from all watches that don’t have Hello Kitty on them.) It’s more of a problem when I write or use a mouse that it cuts the circulation off if I try and wear it on the right.
I also used to wear a watch on my non-dom left hand. I stopped wearing them when I moved to Phoenix, though, because I found that I would sweat horribly under my watch bands. Breaking that habit was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Even now, after two years, I still look at my left wrist when I want to know what time it is.
@Krissa: I don’t know about Egyptian culture exactly, but I think that some traditional Muslims frown upon left-handedness in certain situations. I had a lefty friend who married a Muslim man from Morocco, and her mother-in-law actually slapped her hand away when she started to use her left hand at the dinner table. It was not a mistake she made again. I’ve also had Muslim students who mentioned that the left hand was only to be used in the bathroom, and the idea of using their left hand for anything else shocked them.
I can’t find a wind-up watch anywhere, and I can’t afford one of those eco-watches that are powered by the motions of your arm/hand.
I found mine on overstock.com for less than $50. The downside is that you have to wear it every day or it will slow down.
I’m a lefty, but I’m another one of those lefties who does nearly everything with my right hand. I wear my watch on my right wrist, facing upwards. I do take it off as soon as I get to work, though, since it irritates me to use my laptop while wearing a watch. When I wear bracelets I wear them on my left wrist, but also take them off as soon as I get to work. (I don’t wear bracelets to work very often.)
My brother is also a lefty, and his left hand is much more dominant than mine. I think he uses right-handed scissors, but that’s about it. He even kicks left-footed. He also wears his watch on his right wrist.
I wear mine on my left (non-dom) wrist, with the face in. Face in, b/c if the face is up then the little knobby thing (stem?) stabs into the back of my hand if I’m trying to do something. Actually leaves a little mark.
My mom is a lefty and wears her watch on her left wrist. When she has one, that is. She has rotten luck with watches dying (we call it her magnetic mutation); but it seems that the cheaper the watch, the longer it lasts.
@Jackie: Uch, the erasable pens. And the sticky sound they made when you touched your writing at all. I’m surprised our teachers tolerated those things, but in fact it’s the only type of pen we were allowed to use until fifth grade (pencils only until we passed our cursive test; then we could have erasable pens).
Do they even make those anymore?
But, but… I LOVE watches. They are for me what shoes are for a lot of other women. I have maybe 10, and I could happily have more. Each day I choose the right one for my clothes/mood. If I forget to put one on, I’m discombobulated all day.
Oh, and, right-handed, left wrist, facing UP. The inside of the wrist thing seems very 80s to me, probably because that’s when Swatches dominated and they were too big for everybody.
Oh yes, they still make erasable pens. My parents use them every day on their crossword puzzles.
I remember how my hand would turn blue using those things in elementary school. And I’m a rightie. I guess I just didn’t write very carefully.
Watch on left hand, face up, by the way.
I’m truly ambidexterous, but I write with my left hand most of the time. I also wear my watch on my left hand because that just feels normal to me. Hm. I also wear my rings on my left hand and my right arm is all naked. I’m surprised I don’t walk around with a slight list to the left.
The solution to everyone’s watch problems, obviously, is the PopSwatch – you know the one I mean, right? The actual round watch bit popped out of the plastic casing and you could put it on your shirt, remember? I still have one and it still works, dorky as it may be. Or are we far enough removed from the 80’s that it’s not dorky anymore but ‘retro’?
I wear mine on my left, and I always thought it was because it was easier to wind that way, although that’s clearly a thing of the past. I’m a righty but I shoot pool, brush my teeth, and throw darts lefty. I also drive mostly with my left hand, but that’s most likely from driving a standard car.
Lefty, watch on outside of left wrist, just because everyone else in my family did it this way. (Although LTG’s reasoning makes perfect sense to me, up to and including the Spidey webshooter logic). I use right-handed scissors for the same reason. Also left-handed scissors are an abomination. I used to keep an eye open for those who (unlike me) wore their watches on the non-dominant right hand, on the theory that we lefties have to look out for one another. (Apparently lefties are significantly more likely to notice the handedness of others; are we a persecuted minority?) But it seems that more righties are putting watches on their dominant hand, so it’s no longer a reliable indicator.
@Laura: “blingly lopsided” might be my new favourite TN coinage, right up there with “HM/WB.” Nice.
It took me YEARS of practice not to smear ink when writing, but I love using a fountain pen. Once I break one in, though, it’s quite unusable by any rightie. Something about the angle of nib. I’m with Sarah and Jackie on the erasable pens; the ink was gross, the pens were slick, stick-like, and uninviting to hold – just a mess all around.
@JH in Calgary: My husband is a librarian, and he’s a righty.
I’m a righty editor, but I can name four colleagues in our small department who are lefties. Huh.
After reading the comments on this entry, I’m starting to wonder if 80% of TN’s readers are editors or librarians.
As a righty, I wear my watch on my left hand. The face is on the inside of my wrist, but NOT BY MY CHOICE. Strapping it on by using the last hole in the band makes the wristband too tight, but using the next-to-last hole makes it too loose, so the face slides around to the inside of my wrist, against my will and preference. Hey, Timex, are you listening?!
I do wear bracelets on my right hand, though. Just have to remember to take any bracelet(s) off before I go to the bathroom. (Sorry if TMI.)
Indeed they do, Sars, indeed they do. Erasermates seem to be the dominator in this market, and they’re still easy to find.
I remember so well when erasable pens came out; I was in 5th grade. That was the kitten’s jammies.