For many years — hell, most of the years — it was all but impossible to find a left-handed wristwatch unless you were placing an order for a special commission. Actually, let’s back up a moment. When we say “left-handed,” what we mean is a watch with its crown at 9 o’clock: Traditionally, right-handed folks — about 85 to 90% of the global population — tend to wear their watches on the left hand to keep it out of the way of the right, which is busy doing, well, everything. With the crown positioned at 3 o’clock, it makes it easy for righties to set the time and wind their watch. (The one downside is that larger crowns tend to dig into one’s hand where it meets the wrist — more on this in a moment.)
From the First World War through to the 21st century, lefties largely had to just deal with this — it simply didn’t make sense for watch companies to dedicate part of their production to a relatively small sliver of the population given the costs of tooling, machining, etc. So while it’s possible to find special commissions or small runs of “destro” watches during the 20th century — from the Italian for “right,” confusingly indicating a watch meant to be worn on the right hand because the crown is on the left — they were rarely produced at scale.
But southpaws — rejoice! This is finally changing. Tudor was among the first of the larger companies to dip into this trend in 2016 with the introduction of its Pelagos LHD. In 2022, meanwhile, Rolex released its full production-model left-hand-crown watch, a take on the GMT-Master II with a green and black bezel. In true Rolex fashion, the brand makes no mention of the watch being meant for lefties, which brings up an important point, hinted at earlier: left-hand-crown watches aren’t just for lefties. Because while they may be harder for righties to wind and set with their non-dominant hand, the crown — provided the watch is worn on the left wrist — no longer pokes into one’s hand. If you’ve ever worn a timepiece with a larger crown such as a Rolex tool watch, you might have a permanent welt. (No? Just me?) Not so if you wear a “destro” watch.
Either way, left-hand watches are slowly becoming more popular. For the most part, the action seems to be relegated to tool watches: DOXA just released a version of its deep-diving SUB 300T, and Panerai re-released a new version of its lefty Luminor. And while left-handed dress watches may be less compelling to righties given the lack of aforementioned large crowns digging into one’s hand, they’d surely be appealing to actual lefties. (Can we interest anyone in a southpaw Cartier Tank Americaine?)
Here are some of our favorite lefty watches currently on the market. And while there certainly aren’t a ton of them, brands are releasing more and more every year. It’s a brave new left-handed world out there, people!
Tudor Pelagos LHD
Tudor’s Pelagos line represents its flagship dive watch product. With titanium and steel construction, a COSC-certified movement, an automatic helium escape valve, 500m of water resistance, a ceramic bezel insert and a special, automatically-expanding bracelet, it has very little competition at its price point — even within a crowded market. The “LHD” (Left-Hand Drive) version, meanwhile, flips the crown to the 9 o’clock position, making this exceptional model perfect either for lefties or for righties who are bothered by larger, screw-down crowns worn on the left hand.
Diameter: 42mm
Movement: Tudor Manufacture Calibre MT5612-LHD (COSC) automatic
Water Resistance: 500m
Panerai Luminor Destro Otto Giorni
The idea behind a Panerai with a left-handed crown and protector was supposedly to allow a right-handed diver to wear a depth gauge on their left wrist and a watch on their right. Regardless, the Luminor Destro Otto Giorni has become a collector favorite across its various iterations over the years. Boasting a hand-wound Panerai movement with an impressive eight-day power reserve and 300m of water resistance, its vintage-inspired good looks, larger 44mm case and “sandwich” dial construction lend it a timeless look. Cased in polished steel and paired to a handsome light beige suede strap, it’s a handsome option for everyday wear.
Diameter: 44mm
Movement: Panerai P.5000 hand-wound
Water Resistance: 300m
Rolex GMT-Master II ref. 126720VTNR
Ahh, the watch that broke the internet in 2022. Though there have been rare instances of left-hand crown Rollies before, the GMT-Master II ref. 126720VTNR represents the first instance of a full-production model in such a configuration. Though the brand doesn’t refer to it as a left-handed person’s watch, it certainly fits the bill for such a customer. (Right-handed clients might find it takes some getting used to, but having the crown out of the way of one’s hand is a welcome development.) The green-and-black Cerachrom bezel, meanwhile, is a fresh colorway that’s currently only available in the “destro” format.
Diameter: 40mm
Movement: Rolex Calibre 3285 automatic
Water Resistance: 100m
TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph
Fine, we’re slightly cheating here. The original Heuer Monaco was never intended as a left-handed watch. Rather, the Calibre 11 — developed by Heuer in the 1960s as one of the world’s first automatic chronograph movements — featured modular construction that necessitated a left-hand crown. (The claim was also made that this configuration reminded users that the watch was automatic. A convenient bit of marketing, perhaps?) Either way you slice it, the Monaco’s unique configuration and rectangular cushion case have made it a classic.
Diameter: 39mm
Movement: TAG Heuer Calibre 11 automatic
Water Resistance: 100m
Citizen Promaster Dive Automatic
Hey, now — an eminently affordable, deep-diving watch for well under $1,000. Citizen’s Promaster Dive Automatic has long been a favorite of divers on a budget, but this cool left-hand crown version tucks the time-setting device even more out of the way because of its 8 o’clock positioning. Housed in a 44mm steel case and powered by one of Citizen’s reliable automatic movements, it’s a larger timepiece, to be sure, but perfect for underwater use given its excellent legibility and highly grippable crown. Plus, the day-date display is helpful for when you transition back to land.
Diameter: 44mm
Movement: Citizen Caliber 8204 automatic
Water Resistance: 200m
DOXA SUB 300T Aristera
Launched in 1968, the DOXA SUB 300T added a helium escape valve to the brand’s famed cushion-cased diver and increased the water resistance to a whopping 1,200. Now, for the first time, the Swiss brand is producing the 300T in a left-handed configuration which it’s dubbing “Aristera” from the Greek word for “left.” Currently available in the brand’s famed orange-dialed “Professional” spec, it features the SUB’s famous no-decompression limits dive bezel and comfortable beads-of-rice bracelet with ratcheting wetsuit extension mechanism. It also comes with an additional black and orange NATO strap.
Diameter: 42.5mm
Movement: ETA 2824-2 automatic
Water Resistance: 1,200m
Hamilton Khaki Aviation X-Wind Auto Chrono
The Hamilton X-Wind (“crosswind”) series of pilot’s watches packs quite a lot of functionality into its oversized cases. The Auto Chrono, for example, features no fewer than three crowns and two pushers, which necessitates rotating its ETA 7750 base movement 180 degrees such that the winding/time-setting crown and chronograph pushers are on the left-hand side of the case. The other two crowns are used for setting internal and external bezels to help pilots calculate crosswind speeds (if your digital avionics are doing this for you, then they simply help you look sophisticated and mathematically competent).
Diameter: 44mm
Movement: Hamilton Caliber H-21-Si automatic (ETA 7750 base)
Water Resistance: 100m
Omega Seamaster Ploprof 1200M
This special “Summer Blue” take on the famously deep-diving Omega Ploprof helps diffuse some of this model’s unconventional looks, giving it a handsome dial, bezel and strap color reminiscent of the ocean’s depths. Water resistant to 1,200m, it features a unique security pusher used to lock and unlock the rotating bezel, which is executed here in blue ceramic. And although it measures a whopping 55mm wide, its protected crown, rubber dive strap and highly-accurate, automatic Co-Axial Caliber 8912 automatic will ensure excellent sub-sea service. (Maybe don’t rock it with black tie, unless your last name happens to be Bond.)
Diameter: 55mm
Movement: Omega Co-Axial Caliber 8912 automatic
Water Resistance: 1,200m
Serica Ref. 6190 Field Chronometer “California”
French brand Serica makes cool, vintage-inspired tool watches at distinctly non-luxury prices — the type of timepieces we love to champion. Take the Ref. 6190 Field Chronometer, for example: boasting a cool “California” dial with a mix of Roman and Arabic numerals, it has the smooth bezel of a field watch, the “twisted” lugs of a vintage Omega and the Bonklip bracelet of a WWII-era chronograph. Powered by a COSC-certified, Swiss automatic movement from Soprod, however, it’s more than capable of holding its own, and you can snag one in either a standard right-hand configuration or in a left-handed version with the crown at 9 o’clock.
Diameter: 37.7mm
Movement: Soprod M100 COSC automatic
Water Resistance: 200m
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