Do you wear your watch on your left hand or your right hand? Turns out, there’s more to this question than meets the eye. The answer may say more about you than you realize. Here’s a closer look at which hand men and women typically wear watches on – and what it might mean.

On which hand is the watch worn?

There is a paradox happening in the world today. On the one hand, society is moving toward democratic fashion, which means people can dress however they want. The main reason for this change is that people want to live simpler lives. They don’t want to have to worry about following fashion rules. Some people think it does not matter which hand they wear their watch. Other people think there are rules about which hand to wear a watch on. Both groups are right.

Men

For a long time, men didn’t wear wristwatches. They liked pocket watches better. But in 1902, the Swiss company Omega made an advertisement for wristwatches. It showed that people in the Boer War liked using wristwatches better. Then, in 1904, Louis Cartier made a rectangular wristwatch for men. It was different from other watches then and showed that it is possible to experiment with watch shapes.

Watches have gotten a lot better since they were first invented. For example, one problem was that glass was easy to break. So, for a long time, people put different metal grates or covers over the glass to protect it. Only in the 1920s did people start using more durable plastic than glass.

It is important to know that the answer to the question about which hand people wear a watch is related to how it was designed. Most people worldwide are right-handed, so the manual mechanical winding was located on the case on the right, at number 3. It means it would be easier to wear the watch on the left hand so that people could wind it with their right hand. Unfortunately, there were no people who made watches specifically for left-handers, so they had to adapt.

Over time, watches that wind themselves appeared, and quartz watches that were cheaper and more accurate. So even this not-so-serious reason – a right-handed clockwork mechanism – is not important anymore.

Women

Women usually wear watches on their left hand. But some rules say women should wear bracelets only on their right hand. So this means that the left wrist is for watches. The question is if you want to follow these rules or not. You can break the rules if you don’t care about being polite. But even fashion sometimes breaks the rules. For example, the 60s were a time when people wore chokers.

Why is the watch worn on the right hand?

The most significant reason is that the watch is more practical and comfortable to wear on the non-dominant hand. The fact is that with the dominant, leading hand, you perform many actions in a day without even thinking about it. Even modern watches are pretty fragile, considering how precise and jeweled the mechanism is hidden inside. If you move your hands around a lot, it increases the chances of damaging your watch. And even if you don’t see any damage, the watch will wear out over time from being used. For example, if you play tennis, the energy from the movement will make the watch less accurate.

Some people think conservatives wear watches on the left hand, and people who like to try new things wear watches on the right. It is because people dominated by logical thinking usually prefer the left, and people who are creative and have a different view of the world usually prefer the right. You might also see watches on the right hand in advertising because it draws attention.