The Apple Watch: A Right-Handed Exclusive

Apple

The highly anticipated and just announced Apple Watch will come in your choice of two sizes, three finishes and six bands, but all of them will expect you to be right-handed.

That’s because the watch is designed to be controlled primarily via a novel crown dial-button hybrid that sits to the right of the device. You’re also meant to draw on it and swipe around with your finger. The result is a product that must either be worn on the left wrist, or controlled with contorted fingers.

That won’t bother most consumers, as right-handed people are in the majority, but it’s an insult to the rest of us, especially when Apple is playing up the watch’s endless options. CEO Tim Cook said the Apple Watch will “redefine what people expect from a watch.” For me, that means not being able to use one.

For the rest of you, the Apple Watch is available “early 2015” for $349 and requires a late model iPhone.

Update: It has been suggested to me, although I’ve read about it nowhere, that the watch will flip over for left-handed users. That makes a lot of sense and I see no reason why it wouldn’t be ready to go out of the box. However, this still puts the “digital crown” in an awkward position, and it leaves me wondering why Apple would bother making a special edition for Saudi royalty, but not one for people who quite literally “think different.”

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer