Night Watch (SW 9680)

Illustrative room. Screen colors vary; test a sample before you paint.
Night Watch (SW 9680) is a very deep, neutral black from Sherwin-Williams: LRV 4, so it reflects about 4 percent of the light that hits it.
Colors that go with Night Watch
Three Sherwin-Williams colors picked for Night Watch by this site's color math: a trim white, a quiet contrast from another family, a dark accent. Sherwin-Williams did not choose these pairings.
Closest match in every other brand
Each brand's closest color to Night Watch, ranked by CIEDE2000 (deltaE): under 1.0 is indistinguishable, 1.0 to 2.3 very close, 2.3 to 5 noticeably different, over 5 clearly different.
| Brand | Closest color | Code | LRV | deltaE | How close |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Moore | Black Knight | 2136-10 | 4.8 | 1.0 | very close |
| Behr | Limousine Leather | MQ5-05 | 4.5 | 3.6 | noticeably different |
| Valspar | Nocturnal Green | 5011-1 | 6 | 5.4 | clearly different |
| PPG Paints | Dark As Night | 14-05 | 6 | 5.3 | clearly different |
Lighter and darker in Sherwin-Williams
The Sherwin-Williams black colors nearest to Night Watch (LRV 4) by LRV.
Lighter than Night Watch
Darker than Night Watch
Color data
| Brand | Sherwin-Williams |
|---|---|
| Color code | SW 9680 |
| Hex | #303636 |
| RGB | 48, 54, 54 |
| HSL | 180°, 6%, 20% |
| LRV (light reflectance value) | 4 |
| Lab L*, a*, b* | 22.1, -2.5, -0.9 |
| Undertone | Neutral |
| Temperature | neutral |
| Color family | Black |
Same paint, two kinds of light
Night Watch (SW 9680), published as #303636
#212E34
#3F3E36
These swatches and the rooms above are a simulation, not a measurement. How the visualizer works
Similar shades from Sherwin-Williams
More from Sherwin-Williams
Common questions
- What is the LRV of Night Watch (SW 9680)?
- Night Watch has an LRV of 4. LRV runs from 0 (black) to 100 (pure white) and measures the share of light a surface reflects, so Night Watch is a very deep color.
- What is the closest match to Night Watch in another brand?
- Black Knight (BM 2136-10) from Benjamin Moore, at a deltaE of 1.0 (very close).
- Is Night Watch warm or cool?
- Sherwin-Williams lists Night Watch as neutral, with a Neutral undertone. Its Lab b* value is -0.9; a higher b* is warmer and yellower, a lower one cooler and bluer.
Sources: LRV and hex as published by the manufacturer, via PaintDB (CC BY 4.0). Color differences are CIEDE2000 values computed by this site from the hex values (data snapshot 2026-10-01). Color names and codes belong to their manufacturers.