watchers

Watchers is the plural of watcher and a term used in various contexts to denote observers, guardians, or monitors. In myth, religion, literature, and technology, it is applied to groups or roles characterized by vigilance, surveillance, or the act of observing.

In ancient Jewish and Christian apocrypha, The Watchers refers to a class of angels who descended to Earth and taught humanity forbidden knowledge. Their actions are described as disobedience, and they are punished by divine judgment in later traditions; they are not part of canonical scripture.

In popular culture, The Watchers are a faction in Marvel Comics, a race of cosmic beings whose purpose is to observe events across the cosmos. They usually refrain from interference; one member, Uatu, is among the best known to readers.

Literature and film have reused the term in various ways, including Dean Koontz's 1987 novel Watchers, which centers on vigilant observation and the consequences of knowledge.

In computing and software, a watcher or watcher pattern describes components that monitor changes in data, state, or the filesystem. File system watchers and observer-based designs trigger events when relevant changes occur.