On which wrist should I wear my watch?

There is an historical debate among both beginner and advanced watch enthusiasts. It seems that a rule was established years ago... This rule answers the following question:

On which wrist should we wear our watch and why? Left or right arm?

In the world, 90% of people are right-handed and 10% are left-handed. As everyone knows, right-handed people use their right hand more often for daily tasks, and the same goes for left-handed people. It is therefore better to wear your watch on the less active arm. 

Indeed, wearing your watch on your dominant arm means risking shocks and sudden movements that could potentially damage the movement. This is why it is better to wear your watch on your non-dominant arm because you use it less frequently.

The other explanation is due to the position of the crown on your timepiece, which is at 3 o'clock for almost all watches, except for some brands that start to make watches with crowns at 9 o'clock so that left-handed people can manipulate them. Originally, mechanical watches were hand-wound, a large part of the population being right-handed and the crown being at 3 o'clock, it was easier to wear the watch on the left arm in order to wind it up and adjust the time while having it on the wrist.

Two other simple arguments can be given to explain this rule: the first one is the fact of simply putting on the watch... Indeed, right-handed people will have more difficulties putting their watch on the right wrist and closing the strap with their left hand, with which they are less agile.

The second one is explained with the fact that it is easier to wear your watch on the non-dominant arm because it is less used and therefore less often in movement than the other one, it is easier and faster to read the time.

Finally, from a purely aesthetic point of view, the choice of the wrist on which to wear your timepiece also depends on whether you wear jewelry on your wrists or on your fingers and whether you want to create a certain harmony with your accessories.

At Atelier Jalaper, the deal is simple. Simon wears his AJ002-B on his right arm with his The Racer strap. As for Louis, he wears his AJ002-S on his left arm, mounted on the beautiful G-Force carbon effect strap.

Let's note that more and more watchmaking companies, young or historical, offer watches with the winding and time setting crown on the left. We could observe that during the Watches and Wonders 2022 show, Rolex presented its very first modern watch with a left-hand crown, the GMT-Master II reference 126720VTNR. More recently, it is also the new release of Patek Philippe with the reference 5373P-001 offering a single pusher chronograph with split-seconds and perpetual calendar... Especially for left-handed people.