How do I move the Digital Crown on my Apple Watch?

I’d only had my Series 3 Apple Watch 24 hours before I came across my first major problem. I was moving furniture around at home and I found that I kept activating Siri and being presented with this screen…

The Digital Crown, which sits in the top right of the watch, can be used to control a number of functions and that includes being held down to activate Siri. I wear my watch on my left arm and, as a result of raising my wrist to move things, I was pushing the button in.

Surely there was a solution to this? InitiallyI thought that the button could be remapped but a trawl of the settings and then of Google showed this not to be the case. Maybe I was going to have to wear it on my right arm…

Whilst looking in the settings I saw that you could specify which wrist you had it on – my Fitbit had done this and I’m guessing it makes a difference to how steps are registered. But I’d also remembered a second option – which side the Crown was on. At the time I didn’t understand its use but now, suddenly, ‘the penny dropped’.

Moving the Digital Crown

• Press the Crown to display your home screen and then go into Settings. Select General and Orientation. Now change the ‘Digital Crown’ option from right to left.

• The image on the screen instantly flips upside down.
• Remove your watch from your wrist (if you haven’t already) and then remove the straps, switching them over to the opposite sides.
• Put the watch back on, now with the Crown in the bottom left corner.

Your watch will now operate as before but the buttons are now on the left, safely away from any flailing wrists. Of course, you’ve now got to get used to having them on the other side, but, just one day into owning the watch, that wasn’t an issue for me.

Yes, it’s a simple thing but I can’t remember my Android Wear watch offering something similar (although the watches aren’t consistent in use of buttons and layouts). It’s often the small, thoughtful touches that really make the difference. Bravo Apple. Next, we need to convince them to allow button remapping…