Nixon watches,
identified by name, not number

Nixon breaks the fashion-watch pattern in one confusing way: where other brands stamp model codes, Nixon leads with names. The Time Teller, the Sentry, the 51-30. Owners hunting a code on the caseback find marketing lines and a serial instead, and the identification actually runs through the name on the dial side.

Last reviewed July 2026 · Independent guide · Not affiliated with Nixon

Nixon's naming system, and why there is no code

Nixon grew out of action-sports culture, and its catalogue reads like a roster rather than a parts list: the Time Teller, the Sentry, the Corporal, the Regulus built for special-operations use, and the 51-30, named for its 51 millimetre case and 300 metre water resistance. The model name, stamped on the caseback, is the reference: search Nixon plus the name and the documented model returns with sizes, movements and colorway history.

Variants matter because Nixon runs models in many finishes: all-gold, gunmetal, pattern dials, team collaborations. Identifying yours fully means the name plus the colorway details, which the catalogue and sold listings document. The numeric caseback markings, meanwhile, are serials and batch codes with no public decoder, and the manufacture year they conceal would not move the value anyway.

The brand is independent in spirit and history, its watches predominantly Japanese-quartz powered, with custom modules in the specialist pieces. Judged as robust styled quartz, the catalogue is honest hardware.

The 51-30 problem

One Nixon attracts nearly all the counterfeiting: the 51-30, the oversized flagship that became a status piece well beyond the surf shops it started in. Fakes of it circulate wherever status watches are faked, and they fail exactly where the genuine article overdelivers: mass and machining.

A real 51-30 is enormous and correspondingly heavy: solid steel case, solid-link bracelet, a watch you notice lifting. Counterfeit economics cannot match that mass, so the fakes run light, and the difference is obvious in the hand and even in shipping weights. The machining follows: genuine bezels, pushers and links are cleanly cut with tight tolerances, while fakes rattle, sharpen at the edges and blur their dial print at the sizes Nixon prints boldly.

The module test finishes it: on genuine examples the functions specified for the model, oversized date, working subregisters on the chrono variants, operate correctly. Painted or dead functions on any Nixon claiming them is the same verdict it is on every brand.

Value and the used market

Nixon prices used follow the quality-fashion curve: solid depreciation from retail, condition-driven, with the 51-30 and collaboration colorways holding best and the volume quartz lines settling at friendly numbers. Sold listings for the model name and colorway are the market truth.

Bracelet condition moves Nixon prices more than most brands, because the solid-link bracelets are a large part of the product: stretched pins, deep desk-dive scars and missing links cost real percentage. Photograph bracelets honestly when selling and inspect them closely when buying.

For identification-with-sentiment cases, a drawer-found Nixon from someone's boardsport years, the name-plus-colorway lookup answers in minutes, and the watch usually deserves a battery more than a valuation: these were built to be worn, and mostly still can be.

Buying one today

New, the brand's own channels and board shops carry the current catalogue. Used, apply the name-and-colorway lookup, the bracelet inspection, and, on any 51-30, the weight-and-machining screen, insisting on real photos over stock imagery.

The fake exposure outside the 51-30 is modest: most of the catalogue is too affordable to counterfeit profitably. That concentrates the diligence exactly where the money is, which is convenient for buyers who know it.

And if a listing's 51-30 price seems impossibly kind, remember what the genuine article weighs: the discount that ships light is not a discount.