Apple’s actually made watches before, but one thing that makes the Apple Watch unique from other Cupertino products is it’s the first design I can think of that is asymmetrical. Look at the buttons, and you can see the Apple Watch has a clear handedness: it’s meant to be worn on the left wrist, and operated with the right hand.
Bad for lefties… or is it? Come on: this is Apple we’re talking about. As it turns out, the Apple Watch can be easily set up to wear on the other wrist, as long as you don’t mind the digital crown being on the bottom.
Basically, it appears that the Apple Watch can be easily flipped upside down to wear on the other wrist through an internal left-hand mode. Slashgear reports:
So, it turns out the Apple Watch really works TWO ways. Apple tells us on initial setup, you can choose to have the watch face orient itself for use on the right wrist, making it friendly to lefties. The watch bands are also swappable, so your band isn’t facing the wrong way. Good news for everyone involved, but like most things in life, Lefties will still have to deal with a right-handed design — the crown will be on the bottom of the left side of the watch when on the right wrist.
That’s good news, although we’ll have to wait and see if that causes any functional problems over time. But if you’re left-handed, take heart. Regardless of its handedness, the Apple Watch is still for you.
Source: Slashgear
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
24 responses to “Don’t worry, lefties! The Apple Watch has a left-handed mode”
Except I would never pay $350 for a watch that doesn’t even have a touchscreen….
derrr… you should actually research before making dumb comments.. it does have a touchscreen. It’s even pressure sensitive.. per the dozens of articles, blogs, and the keynote..
It does have a touchscreen.
BTW, Rolex costs 10x more and doesn’t have touchscreen…
Did you even read about or watch a picture or something before coming here posting idiotic comments
So full of hate yet so low on intelligence. I think we know which market you shop in. The envy must be burning a hole in your tiny brain.
Full of hate!? How do you come to that conclusion? You mention low on intelligence, but you are the one who has not just jumped, but leaped to that totally unsupported conclusion. If I am wrong, then please put me right.
What, no claims of the author being biased again? You’re slipping.
Here’s the rub, this guy said, “I would never pay $350 for a watch that doesn’t even have a touchscreen.”
The Apple Watch has a touchscreen. Only a troll could come here and make such an idiotic statement. You need to get a grip mate.
you seem like someone who, at no point in their life, could scrounge up $350 at a time. so thats probably why youre all butthurt
I’m tellin’ ya… you are sexy when you’re trying to make someone feel stupid. LET’S HAVE KINKY SECKS.
I don’t buy it. The optimal experience is the right handed user who wears their watch on their left hand. I know it’s not going to kill anyone to have to use the wheel positioned bottom left, but it just strikes me odd that a company like Apple would create a product with an inconsistent experience for a large number of their customers. They really don’t understand what it’s like to be left handed in a right handed world.
A large number of their customers? Listen, my wife is left handed, I’m ambidextrous. Left handers make up around 10% of the population and Ambis are less than 1%.
We all live in a right handed world. Deal with it. We wear our watches on our left wrists and we use our mice with our right. That’s just the way things are set-up.
Many models of mice are symmetrical and can be configured for left hand use mode.
Not talking about the way they are designed, I’m talking about the way they are oriented. I have about half of my reletives who are left handed all of them mouse with their right hand. That’s just the way life is setup. Do what organisms have been doing for eons… adapt.
90% lefties in the world write with their right hand.
Simply writing on a spiral pad or clipboard as a lefty is a pain in the butt. Wearing a watch on the same hand you write with even more so. A lefty flip in a digital device is no big deal, Apple did it, good for them being considerate enough to add a feature so that I have one less thing to “adapt” to or “deal with”.
90% of the population is right handed, 10% is left handed.
Go and talk to fking Samsung, they dont even consider the lefties for the Note Edge.
why lefty people use their watches on the left arm? it is the same to have it on the right one. Im lefty and I use watches on the right :P
Lefty’s don’t usually use the watch on the left hand, they wear it on the right hand. Righties use it on their Left hand.
fuck i said it wrong xD I meant why letfies use the watch on the right hand. I’m lefty and i use it on my right one xD
I’m a lefty and have always worn a watch on my left hand…and have always used a computer with a mouse on the right and batted baseball like a righty…..yet I know some lefties who use the mouse with their left hand….so this watch works for me!
Why on the bottom? Wouldn’t it be on the left side, turning the watch 180 degrees?
Yes… Read the article.
My prediction: Apple watch will destroy other smart watches in sale, and eventually, Swiss/Asian watches as well. If you think $349 is high, think again. I would pick Apple watch with sh.t loads of functions over the Citizen Eco Drive with Chrono, Seiko Kinetic or any cheap Swiss made watch like Bulova, Swiss Army, Tissot, Hamilton, Movado or even Tag, seriously.