A founding member of the Sheffield-based industrial band Cabaret Voltaire, Watson's subsequent work in field recordings since 1981 has included television documentaries and experimental musical collaborations.

[2] He has released several solo albums of field recordings including: Outside the Circle of Fire, Stepping into the Dark (which won an Award of Distinction at the 2000 Prix Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria), Weather Report, and El Tren Fantasma.

He has also released a variety of works in collaboration with other artists, including Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic, Philip Jeck, Hazard, Fennesz, AER (Jon Wozencroft, aka "Alpha Echo Romeo"), Biosphere, BJNilsen, and Marcus Davidson.

His television work includes Bill Oddie Back in the USA, Great Railway Journeys, Springwatch, and numerous nature documentaries by David Attenborough.

[8][9] In 2018 he assisted Hildur Guðnadóttir in recording sounds from the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant for her Grammy Award-winning score for the miniseries Chernobyl.