Left or Right? Which hand does the Watch go on?

When I was gifted my first watch, I was told I should wear it on the left hand, as that is where the watch is worn. It was a proud day at school. I have vague memories of that watch, a small square shaped watch, with a digital display showing just the time.

I saw my best friend getting a Casio watch which could show the date, had a red light to see it in the dark, and also looked so cool in digital display. He wore it on the right hand.

Another friend of mine got the next version which could power on or off the television. Woah! That was cool, he was such a prankster too. When we would watch educational television at school, he would sneak in power off causing stress for the teachers. He wore it on the right hand.

So when I got my improved version of the watch, which was a small dial watch, I decided I am going to wear it on the right hand as well. All through school, I wore my watch on the right hand. However, when I grew up, it almost seemed kiddish to wear it on the right as all the big kids and adults, I noticed wore their watches on the left.

So confused again, my improved watch, now more adult-like, Casio digital watch with dual time, 20 world time zones, a stop watch,a timer and 5 alarms went on the left hand. This continued until I started seeing some people, adults wearing them on the right hand.

I felt really confused, and decided to explore in a more scientific way the reasons of the choice of hand to put that watch on. I realized, in some cases it was to do with the handed-ness of the person. If somebody was left-handed, it was likely they wore it on the less used hand. If somebody was right-handed, they would likely wear it on the left. The idea being, the watch is something that is to be kept in the background and only called in to tell the time and then move back in the background, better placed on the secondary hand.

Obviously, there are people who consider checking the time more often than others and hence decide that they want it on their primary hand. So logic reversed, lefties wearing it on the left and righties wearing it on the right.

I noticed most ladies with fancy watches wear it on the left, its more of a jewelry item. However, ladies who are into sports and fitness, have been seen wearing it on the right also in my observation. I haven't seen a direct correlation of handed-ness to watches when it comes to women.

In the professional environment, fancy watches are something that need to be shown. Hence, I have seen people with expensive branded watches wearing it on the right hand as that is the hand used for the handshake which causes the sleeve to slightly go up as the arm extends, bringing out that shiny watch that you paid good money for. Believe it or not, that is a reason why you will see expensive watches being worn on the right hand more often than not when it comes to men.

While the trend is changing, but size of the dial is also something that matters. Women prefer smaller dials and men larger ones, some as big as clocks. The bigger the dial, the more likely it is worn on the secondary hand unless of course the expensive watch rule applies when it will be found on the right hand more often.

With the advent and popularity of smart phones, many people have ditched the watch altogether. The phone pretty much serves the purpose and the phone is checked in every little while anyway. On the other hand, the wearable device concept has given rise to the smart-watch which has now moved into the space of health and fitness tracking, star trek like voice commands, small micro cameras, etc.

After moving through the trends in watches, never buying a really expensive one to date, I am finally going to put out that big buck to get a slightly expensive watch by my standards but then it has to be a smart watch. After lots of thought, I am going for the the Motorola Moto 360 which I should be getting within this month. The best part I like about it is that it is a watch first and then a smart device so it looks nice. Secondly, I can change dials to get whichever I want which it gives it a long life, I wont get bored of it. Thirdly, this is the best way to explore Android Wear as it continues to evolve. I will be part of that revolution.

However, when it comes to the watch-hand, I have found the best possible logic and decided that it is going to be my right hand. The logic is driven by prayers where the right hand goes on top of the left hand. Wearing the watch on the left, causes this situation to be a little inappropriate hence keeping it on the right is the way forward for me.

So there you have it. My observational research on the choice of watch-hand. Which hand do you have your watch on, if you wear one?