Ring on the thumb, upside-down watch, unique hoop earring... What does our jewelry say (sometimes despite ourselves)?

When, last September, in the front row of the Bottega Veneta fashion show in Milan, the sexy actor Jacob Elordi wore his Cartier Tank upside down, he probably didn't imagine he'd create such a debate. Seeing this upside-down dial posted on social media, thousands of groupies saw it as proof that he was in a relationship. "I feel like I'm in high school," a colleague told us. "In the 1990s, boys would turn their watches over when they wanted to show they were taken!" However, since these photos, there has been little news about the love life of the 1m96 Australian who loves to cultivate mystery and therefore we still don't know if he is single.

Whether the dial is upside down, a signet ring on the ring finger, or an earring on the right, the way you wear your watch or jewelry can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. A word to the wise is enough.

Also read: “I found my engagement ring at the gas station, buried in the asphalt”: stories of lost and found loners

A legacy of the ancient Romans, the engagement (and wedding) ring is worn on the ring finger of the left hand. According to this belief, and supported by medicine from the ^3rd century BC, this finger would be directly connected to the vena amoris. (in Latin, the vein of love). However, even if the story is beautiful, the truth must be reestablished. This vein does not exist. And yet the tradition endures.

Pirates and sailors used to adorn their left ear with a gold hoop earring for a reason that went beyond style: if they died at sea and their body washed up on unknown shores, the sale of their earring would help pay for their funeral. In the ^20th century, many men copied this style, as a token of virility or to assert their high rank. The larger the hoop earring, the more its owner demonstrated their high social standing.

And what about the right-sided earring? In the 1980s, it was a sign of recognition for the gay community. But nowadays, when people freely express their sexual orientation in our societies, the right-sided earring is simply a stylistic effect.

The jewel dates back to the knights - the only ones after the king to be granted the right to wear a ring on their finger - serving as a seal for legal documents. Good families then appropriated the signet ring to mark their position in the succession : the left ring finger for the eldest sibling; the right little finger for the youngest and youngest. Similarly, showing or turning the coat of arms also carries meaning: towards the sky, in the hand-kissing position, the gentleman indicated his celibacy; upside down or in a fight (that is, towards the heart), it signaled being engaged or married.

In the 1970s, this noble symbol became a rallying cry for rockers and punks, who wore several at once. Today, its symbolism has largely been lost. Thirty-somethings in gentrified neighborhoods now prefer to wear the most classic version, gold and engraved, on their ring finger for a manly look, like actors Tom Holland and Paul Mescal.

From the Middle Ages onward, widows sometimes wore their deceased husband's wedding ring or signet ring. If the jewel was too large, they wore it on their thumb or mounted it as a pendant on a chain. At the end of the ^19th century, the first generation of feminists adopted this thumb ring to denounce the pressure placed on women to marry.

More recently, members of the LGBTQIA+ community have adopted it as a distinctive symbol. But it can also be seen as a sign of self-affirmation and a taste for large jewelry, given that this finger is wider than the others.

Although the first wristwatches appeared in the 19th century—with Patek Philippe's creation for the Hungarian Countess Koscowicz—they didn't become widely used until after the First World War. For practical reasons and to better preserve them, people wore them on the wrist opposite their preferred hand. Since approximately 90% of the population is right-handed, the watch became popular on the left...

But some right-handed people still choose the right wrist to be noticed or out of superstition, like the director Jean-Pierre Melville, who had a heart condition, who found that watches bothered him on the left. A detail taken up by Alain Delon for his cult character Jeff Costello in Le Samouraï (1967). He thus wears his Baume & Mercier inverted on the wrist of his right hand. This reversed dial also evokes the habits of soldiers wanting to protect the glass during maneuvers but also to avoid being spotted because of reflections... More trivially, these days, some people turn their watches over simply to check the time more discreetly...