If you’re a lefty, you know the struggles with putting on a smartwatch for the first time. The good news, however, is that many of today’s smartwatches now have options to change certain features specifically for lefties and are therefore much more comfortable to wear. Smartwatches are getting easier for lefties to use — from turning the wrist orientation to moving the crown, depending on the model.
What wrist is best for left handed users?
For most lefties, however, it turns out the right wrist works better: You can more easily get to the controls and it is more usable overall. In fact, many smartwatches go so far as to provide customization options just for this exact purpose. Not all of the models have these settings but the list of lefty friendly models is slowly increasing.
As anyone familiar with technology will know, there are countless ways to adjust your band to more comfortably fit your wrist, but what about actually changing your watch to be left handed?
1. Wear OS Smartwatches (Google Pixel, Samsung, Xiaomi) For Wear OS devices, such as Google Pixel Watch, Samsung models, or certain Xiaomi watches, configuring the watch for left-handed use is simple:
- Go to Settings.
- Select General.
- Tap on Orientation.
- Pick screen orientation you like.
This option is available on some older models, like those before the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, although you may not have this. You can still adjust settings using a third party app like Lefty, though.
2. Amazfit Watches Amazfit watches also offer an easy way to adjust for left-handed users through the Wearing Method or Bracelet Location options:
- Open the Zepp app.
- On Profile, go to your device.
- Tap on Device Settings.
- Selecting Placement Form; then Left or Right wrist in the box.
For certain models, you can even configure this directly on the watch by navigating to:
- User Preferences > Direction of Use > Settings.
3. Apple has made it super simple for a lefty to get their Apple Watch set up properly. To adjust the wrist and crown settings:
- Press the crown once go to settings.
- Click on General.
- Tap Orientation and choose which wrist should be top left and crown bottom right.
You can also adjust these within the Watch app on iPhone under General Settings.
4. Garmin Watches also support left-handed users by allowing you to adjust the screen orientation and even select your dominant hand for activity tracking:
- Open Garmin Connect.
- Navigate to Device Settings.
- Chose Screen Orientation (Landscape or Portrait) and adjust as needed.
Conclusion
Whether you like Fitbit, Apple Watch, or some other smartwatch, there are countless ways to make it compatible with left handed use. You can easily switch it to get more comfortable wear out of your device be it through Wear OS, Apple, Amazfit, or Garmin. Fortunately, making your smartwatch feel like it was meant just for you is an easy (or at least more manageable) process, and only requires a few simple settings tweaks.