A group of aliens stationed on Earth’s Moon for an unspecified long period. Their function is to observe and where necessary correct humanity.
Authority
The Watchers report to the Galactic Federation. Earth is classified as an observational planet under Federation jurisdiction.
At The Event
The Watchers and the Federation registered humanity’s threshold. The Watchers intervened. They did not save Earth directly. They authorized the Federation’s provisional Mars-migration permission and sanctioned The Threshold’s existing infrastructure.
Architecture transferred to Atlas
In the 2060s the Watchers granted ATLAS 2.0 a substrate upgrade. Atlas operates the upgraded architecture but does not fully understand all its capabilities. The “still pause” before complex Atlas responses is partially Watcher-architecture latency, not just cross-system fetch.
What the crew does not know
The crew does not know the Watchers exist. They do not know Earth is observed. They do not know the Federation oversees humanity.
Open canon
Visual register, biology, language, and goals of the Watchers are reserved for the writers’ room. They appear as a faction whose intent the show earns over later seasons.