Have you ever noticed that military wear watches inside the wrist?
Military personnel look and interact with their watches more often than most civilians do. Of course, they look at the watch in order to know the time. However, they also look at their watches to synchronize their timekeeping with other members of their team, other teams, and even other branches of the military.
Also, they may be changing the time on their watches fairly often. This is because military folks often move between time zones, sometimes cross the international date line, and switch between local time, the time at their home base or command center, and “Zulu” time.
What does any of that have to do with how military personnel wear watches?
Well, the following are the reasons why:
1. Minimizes Damage
Look at your wristwatch.
Chances are that the outer region, which is the face, bezel, crown, and the external surface of the band have more scratches, chips, stains, and tarnish compared to the interior of the band or the case back.
When opening the door, moving past other people or objects, the upper side of the wrist is more exposed than the inner side.
This means that the watch is more prone to damage than when worn inside the wrist.
(See more: Best G Shock watches for military personnel)
Have you ever banged your watch on something? The sound of damaging your watch in this way is also something to be avoided in some military circumstances.
2. Improves Rifle/ Gun Handling
Most military personnel are right-handed and this means that they will wear the watch on the left wrist.
To aim the firearm, you need to support with the left wrist.
If wearing a timepiece, chances are that it will come into contact with the rifle.
You won’t have a complete feel of the firearm and this may affect your aim.
Wearing it inside the wrist offers better handling and control.
3. Better Focus
When adorning a watch the normal way, you will subconsciously know that you have it.
Also, the large glaring face will always tempt you to keep looking at it.
However, by having it inside the wrist it is less noticeable.
This allows you to pay attention to the activity at hand. This is critical for the military.
In summary, you will only be checking your watch because you have decided to do so, not because you glanced down, saw your watch, and checked for that reason.
4. Minimizes Reflection
The glass or crystal face of your watch is probably highly reflective. On bright and sunny days, or at night in artificial light, the reflection from a watch can be easy to notice.
It will have a sort-of-mirror reflection, which can easily give away your location especially if in a discreet setting.
Training yourself to wear it inside the wrist helps you to stay unidentifiable when you need to.
Conclusion
Other than the military, other people also do wear the watch inside the wrist.
This makes it easier to handle things, view time, minimize distraction, and reduce abrasion, bangs, and bumps.
Military Watches
