Old Habits

When I was 8 or 9, I got a Lion King watch for my birthday. I felt like such a grown-up wearing a watch.

A couple of days later, when I went to my violin lesson, my teacher told me that I couldn’t wear my watch on my left-hand. If I was going to wear a watch, it would have to be on my right hand.

I remember being really bothered about this. It felt so WEIRD and also, it was the wrong wrist. (Looking at this picture I just dug up last week, I probably should have been more worried about my awesome bangs or my giant glasses than which wrist I wore my watch on).

Regardless, by the time I stopped playing the violin, some four or five years later, it was such a normal thing, I never switched back.

I’m not as serious a watch-wearer anymore (the watch I wore every single day to my library job and had perfected the art of looking at while reading picture books aloud to an audience of seven-year-olds broke shortly after Ella was born), but when I do put one on, it’s always automatically on my right hand.

 

 
Shirt: Shade (RIP Shade) // Sweater: c/o Oasap // Jeans: Target
Shoes: Kohl’s // Watch: c/o Aupie

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15 Comments

  1. I think it's so weird to wear a watch on the right hand (Matthew does it, though). Since I'm right-handed, it just seems it would get in the way of everything!

  2. Are you left handed? Your watch is generally on your non-dominant hand. I wear my fitbit on my right and I've been thinking about wearing a watch again but then it would have to go on my left and I'm not sure I can do that.

  3. I can't wear a watch. Twitch. Either wrist. Twitch. THOUGH I did just train myself to wear a bracelet. On occasion. But sometimes, midday, it still makes me twitch.

  4. I wore my watch on my right hand for over 20 years and just recently switched. As a child, I heard something about it affecting the magnetic polarity of your body (???) and you should wear it on the left, but after years of working a desk job, I noticed my right wrist getting sore where I rested it on the watch band as I used the computer mouse. So, now I wear it on the left and that is that.

  5. As a fellow childhood violinist, I totally feel you! To this day, I am still bothered by anything on my left wrist- bracelets, watches, and even the lone hair tie are always in the right.

    Love the old photo! I have pictures like that: bangs, glasses, socks, and a peter pan collar from the first time they were trendy.

  6. I also wear my watch on my right wrist! (Always have…since my very first, pretty awesome plastic watch with changeable straps I got for Christmas in 1991) My grandfather taught me to wear it on my right wrist BECAUSE I'm right handed. See, he was a retired high school physics teacher and he said it was very rude to let your students know that you were looking at your watch during your lessons. But if you were writing on the board (with your right hand) and your watch was on your right wrist, then voilà! You could check the time in the middle of a lesson without letting your students know about it… Strangely enough, at the age of 9, that made total sense to me and to this day, that's what I still do (and it's become extremely convenient, because now when I teach, it works!)

  7. I wear a watch for work and it's also on my right hand even though I'm right-handed. I think I started putting it there because I didn't like the way it looked with my wedding ring on the same arm. I don't wear much jewelry so I like my ring to stand out!

  8. I wear my watch on my right hand too! Always have even though I am right handed and everyone told me I was doing it wrong. I just prefer it. We must just do this because we are both incredibly awesome.

  9. I'm left handed and have always worn watches on the left. I think as a child I figured it was the right thing to do because I was a lefty, I never knew otherwise until it was too late. Feels way too weird on the right.

  10. I'm newish to watch-wearing. I used to wear a watch all the time but then I got a cell phone and well… But now that I'm 31 and on my way to a professional career, I'm feeling the need to wear a watch again. All that being said, my wrists are insanely skinny so watches NEVER fit. In fact, I have one out for sizing right now. How's the fit on this brand?

  11. I started playing violin in 6th grade and none of my teachers ever said anything about not wearing a watch on my left wrist! Now, I got lectured all the time on not letting my fingernails get long (from both my violin and my piano teachers) but never about my watch.

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