If terms like โNWA,โ โGADA,โ and โFauxtinaโ leave you scratching your head, youโre not yet a full-blown โWIS.โ What the hell does that mean? Donโt worry, youโll soon be fluent in watch slang with the help of this handy reference guide.
For those new to the scene, the watch enthusiast community is welcoming (Editorโs Note: Is it, though?), but might sometimes feel like a foreign country complete with an associated linguistic barrier. The language of watches is vast and colorful, incorporating historical knowledge, technical terms, nicknames of Seiko and Rolex models, hashtags, acronyms and memes โฆ even reference numbers of specific Rolex and Patek Philippe watches enunciated with relish by nerdy collectors.
Below is a glossary of basic terms that can loosely be called slang and which are mostly specific to watches, and especially the online watch communities of Instagram, Reddit and older forums. Arm yourself with a few of these and tackle your next watch meetup with confidence.
Watch Enthusiast SLANG DECODED
Action: Used to describe how satisfying it is to use a watch’s bezel. If the movement is crisp and satisfying, then it’s considered good action.
Example: The bezel on the Black Bay 58 has the best action I’ve ever experienced.