Tudor Pelagos LHD, Panerai Luminor, Tag Heuer Gulf : Left-Handed Watches Review | SwissWatchExpo

What is a Destro left-handed watch and 
why in the world would you want one?  
Coming up Fresh from the 
Showcase at SwissWatchExpo.
Fresh from the Showcase at SwissWatchExpo, 
we’re talking about Destro watches. There’s  
a lot of weird nomenclature around these watches 
and it might be a little bit confusing. We’ll try  
to cut through all that and make it clear for 
you. It’s an interesting concept. We’re really  
talking about any watch where the crown is on 
the left side instead of the traditional right.  
That’s what we mean when we talk about 
a Destro watch or a left-handed watch,  
but there’s a few different words that 
people use around that. So let’s try to  
make that clear. So the word Destro, it’s 
an Italian word. That means, right. So  
why would we call this a right-handed 
watch? Well, it’s because the idea would  
be that you would wear it on the right hand. 
So let’s just say you’re a left-handed person.  
About 10% of the population out there is including 
myself and a few of the salespeople here.
It turns out. And if you were wearing a watch the 
traditional way, you’re wearing it on your left  
hand. And so it’s perfect for you to reach over 
with your right hand and manipulate the crown.  
Also the left hand probably doesn’t get used as 
much by a right-handed person. So it would help  
protect the watch from any kind of extraneous 
knocks where that sort of thing. So this is  
the

way we think of it. Even being a left-handed
person, I usually wear my watch on my left hand.
Most left-handed people, I think wear it on the
right for the same reasons. It keeps it out of
the way on the right side. But now if you think
about it, the crown is now on the right side.
Most watches when they’re that way you
would have to reach around with your
left hand to try to awkwardly manipulate
the crown, or you just couldn’t do it.
So instead, these left-handed watches, they
conveniently relocated the crown from the right
side to the left. You can wear it on your right
hand and then you can manipulate the crown with
your left hand, much more easily. But what
if you’re not left-handed? Well, you could
still always wear a watch on your right hand. I
know a guy who wears two watches all the time,
an Apple watch and a real
watch. So you could do that.
But for a lot of people, when I
hear some feedback on Panerai,
one of the things that people are concerned about
is that because this crown guard is so large,
they’re afraid that if they have it pointed toward
their hand, that it’s going to somehow get in the
way when they flex their hand and it’s going
to dig into their rest and dig into their hand.
I always wear my Panerai on my left hand, the
crown has never bothered me once. So don’t
really worry about that. But if you are concerned
about it, you can always get the left-handed watch
like this Luminor and you could wear it on your
left hand as a left-handed watch, and it would
relocate the crown to inside instead of toward
the, toward your hand. And you would never have to
worry about that digging into your wrist – feature
of the, of the large crown garden on the Panerai,
or if you are left-handed or you just liked the
look of it, you can always wear it over here on
the right side. And it’s a perfect reverse. Now,
one of the interesting things about the history of
these watches is that the story goes that in 1952,
Charlie Chaplin, the famous silent movie star
that he was left-handed and he wanted a watch
that he could use the crown with his left hand.
And so he ordered one from Rolex.
I guess if you’re Charlie Chaplin,
they’ll make a one-off watch
for you. They wouldn’t for me.
But they did for him. And his watch was sold for
millions of dollars at an auction a few years ago.
When – I don’t think that Rolex has ever done a
left-handed watch though, as a production watch
that you have to correct me if I’m wrong. Tell us
in the comments. I know that their sister company
tutor that in the Tudor Pelagos line, there were
special orders that were done all through the
seventies, quite a few of them apparently to the
point that it’s a -I wouldn’t say common watch,
but a lot more common than a left-handed Rolex.
So the company decided to take their Pelagos line
and the current sportiest tool watch you
do see a lot of these left-handed watches.
They’re really, they’re focused
on being tool watches. They’re not
dress watches or anything like that. They
are watches that people really are using
day to day for some sort of timekeeping function.
But in their Pelagos line, they’ve come out with
what they call the LHD for left-hand drive.
And we have it in stock here in titanium.
It’s just a great look, but you can see,
this is actually a production watch.
With Tag Heuer back in the sixties when Heuer
was part of the conglomerate and they came out
with the first automatic chronographs, they
located the crown on the left side. Apparently
at the time they, it was too complicated
to be able to have the chronograph module
and have the pushers and also have the crown
all on the same side. So it’s just naturally on
the left. So if you’re a purist, when it comes to
all things, Steve McQueen and racing, and you can
see this one has the Gulf levery. The definitely
the, the caliber 11 Monaco, you’re going to one
is the one with the crown on the left, because
that was the one that the King of Cool wore.
So you’ve got a few different choices here for
the left-handed watches for the Destros. If you
call us up, we’ll be, we’ll know exactly what
you’re talking about. I think that the Panerai,
that this is one of the coolest looks because
it’s already a really unusual watch. That’s
a real conversation piece. Whenever I, I used
to have a left-handed titanium Luminor Marina,
and every time I wore it, it got
all kinds of conversation around
it because people want to know exactly
what that was going on. And, you know,
they thought it looked like a throwback military
watch, which of course it was. So a lot of fun you
can have with these, whether you’re left-handed
or right-handed, it really makes a good choice.
If you’ve ever thought at all about the idea that
the Panerai crown guard might sort of dig into
you, this is a solution for you, but just going
back historical pieces. Really some interesting
stories behind these and a great chance for you to
have an unusual, interesting conversation piece.