Side Band

As you read this, take a moment to relax your hands for a moment and take a look at them. In most cases, the inside of your wrist will be facing you – and if you wear a wristwatch – the face of the watch will be pointed away from you so that you must rotate your wrist to see the face. I would like a wristwatch band that fits comfortably on the wrist with the watch mounted on the inside of the wrist rather then on top, i.e., a Side Band.

I first noticed this problem when I sprained my elbow and had trouble rotating my arm to see my watch. It was surprising how often and how far I had to move my arm to see my watch. After rotating my watchband around so that it was on the inside of my wrist, it was less comfortable but I found some benefits. I could read the watch while typing or driving or eating with no arm movement at all. When I sat at meetings with my hands resting on the table, I could glance at my watch without the telltale arm rotation that is often interpreted as impatience. I also found the watch buttons to be more easily manipulated from the side position. Finally, I saw that a watch on the inside of the wrist tended be more protected as well.

A piece of flexible carefully contoured plastic or maybe even metal should be able to accommodate a watch on the side of the wrist without shifting around the wrist and without discomfort. Some of the hard bracelet designs might even work with the minor modifications necessary to accommodate a watch. I would like this to work with existing watches because it is unlikely that a new line of watches would meet my needs in the near term. However, it is clear that a watch designed for a Side Band would be superior in both profile and comfort.

This is already partially baked in that a normal top-located wristwatch with an angled display is available that can be more easily viewed from a resting position. (can’t remember the name) However, a generic Side Band that could accommodate many watch designs would be much more interesting. It is also nearly baked since new flexible LCD displays will soon make the whole idea of a wristwatch obsolete since the band itself will contain imagery (time or otherwise) at whatever angle a user desires.