A painter and sculptor educated at Edinburgh College of Art, Watson was a member of the 1922 Group. A founding tenant and early pre-cursor to the Edinburgh School, the Group centred around a core of nine fellow Edinburgh students that included William Crozier, William Gillies, William McTaggart and John Maxwell. Many members had won travel scholarships to Paris, particularly the atelier of André Lhote. They aimed to champion the new ideas of French modernism they had absorbed in France against those of the traditional academic institutions of the Edinburgh establishment. Their exhibitions were held mainly at the New Gallery in Shandwick Place, an artist run space that was home to the Society of Eight founded by, amongst others, Sir John Lavery and the Scottish Colourists. The 1922 Group showed together for nearly a decade by which time many of its members were themselves leading lights of the Edinburgh art world.
