Which wrist is correct?

bill nye_3

For my 16th birthday I received a wrist watch. I wore it all the time [no pun intended] for about a month and a half. When school let out for the summer I worked as a laborer for the construction company my dad worked at.

We were building forms and something, a tool, fell down between the forms. Being the youngest and the smallest I was sent down to get it. I slipped and fell and was hanging from a nail caught under my watch band. I hung there until the pin that held the watch band broke.

I still have the "V" shaped scar on my Left wrist. To this day I have never worn any kind of jewelery, not even a wedding ring. I have a pocket watch.

OIl Man five

Watches

I just purchased a new G-Shock watch off of Amazon ( since my wife forgot to get me one yesterday), so I'm on the job talking to the guys, telling them of my purchase, one fella asked which wrist does a the wrist watch go on?
Now I'm pretty much a fashion expert, I know which belt to wear with my Cartharts and which boots to wear with my overalls ect.. you get the picture, but which wrist.
This one has me stumped, if your right handed is it the right wrist or left, if on the right I would think that your more likely to damage it since you favor your right hand for work. This one is a tough one, so where else to bring this important question, but to the The WALL where somebody may have a clue.

ALH_4

hmm

I always figured watches should be worn on the left wrist if you are right-handed and vise-versa, as you said.

Joe Brix

That would be correct......

....for the old style watches that had to be wound up. A right handed person would typically wear the watch on their left wrist, so that they could more easily operate the winding/time-setting knob with their right hand.

Nowadays, with the electronic watches, it probably makes less difference. I personally don't wear one anymore, as it always seemed to get trashed too easily. I just pop my cell phone off the belt holster when I want to know the time...........

Starch

Brad White_9

Andrew is right again!

The working hand is free for the task at hand so to speak. Same reason the urinal lever is on the left. Most people are right-handed and the right hand is, well, busy.

Ragu_5

Ah! Something true to me heart...

The first day of my apprenticeship my boss asked me if I could solder. Of course, I said. He gave me a place to solder and I made sure that joint would not leak. I mean that I SMOTHERED that fitting with solder (I was young). Unfortunately, I had a watch on my left wrist (I am right handed) and the watch had a metal wrist band.

Well! Seeing as I used a ton of solder to make sure that this joint did not leak, a whole bunch of it ran down my arm and soldered my watch band to my wrist. It hurt like the dickens, but I did not let out a peep.

When I got a moment alone, I took my watch off and it ripped the skin off of my forearm. Ouch! It was about a month before that thing healed.

I do not wear a watch anymore. This is a true story.


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Unknown

Hi Starch

I share your feelings about not wearing a watch anymore as I too find it just as easy to check the cell phone which always seems to be with me whether it needs to be or not.

I remember someone once posing a more thought provoking question once about which wrist to wear a self-winding watch on to keep to properly wound and along with that another question. If your self winding watch is worn correctly and it stops working....does that mean you are dead? If that's the case then I guess it just doesn't matter what time it is anymore!

Glenn Stanton

Manager of Technical Development

Burnham Hydronics

U.S. Boiler Co., Inc.

t.wheat

my teachers in school told us to wear the watch on the opposite part of the body that you wear your billfold. which for me means i wear my watch on my left hand. why ...i have no idea.

ALH_4

similar story

That had to be horribly painful. About 5 years ago a co-worker was in a very tight crawlspace soldering a fitting and it dripped between his watch and his wrist. I don't think he ever did find the watch after he ripped it off. He never wore a watch again.

Growing up on a farm, watches and jewelry were just asking for trouble when jumping up and down from machinery and working with moving equipment. I really should be dead a couple times over for the stupid mistakes I have made with heavy machinery. I did get molten steel in my ear once. Luckily I didn't wear earrings. ;-)

Uni R_3

It's 2007... watches are becoming obsolete except as fashion

We have these dispoable things called cell phones that keep time and you don't even need to adjust them.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Nothing to do with fashion--I believe it has everything to do with controls. Even though my watch is electric, it has lots of functions.

Stem on the right that rotates to select stopwatch, timer, month, alarm, etc. Pushbuttons on the left.

I'm at least 50% ambidextrous (can write quite legibly left-handed--almost perfectly if I do the DaVinci thing with "mirror" writing--comes natural when you try it) but this watch would be EXTREMELY difficult to operate if worn on the right wrist--even if I were completely left-handed.

Rotating bezel is one of my favorite features of a watch. Perfect for keeping track of time spent on a specific job.

BTW, my wallet is in the right hip pocket of trousers, but in the left breast pocket of a suit jacket...