[1] He won numerous medals at state level and first represented Australia in Ottensheim in the Junior Men's World Championships, in the four, at the young age of 16, stroking the boat and finishing a very respectable 4th place in the A final.

[3][4] Watts made a number of underage appearances for Australia – at the 2008 and 2010 Junior World Rowing Championships; the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympics as one of only two, Australian male rowers selected and the 2012 and 2014 World Rowing U23 Championships, winning three bronze medals, including one at the Youth Olympics, Singapore.

[5] At the 2015 World Rowing Championships on Lac d'Aiguebelette, France, as the crew's youngest rower, he stroked the men's quadruple scull (M4x) to a silver medal with David Crawshay, Karsten Forsterling and Cameron Girdlestone.

In 2016 Watts was selected to stroke Australia's double scull at the 2016 Summer Olympics with Chris Morgan, successfully winning the B final in an extremely competitive boat class.

[5] In 2018 he was Western Australia's selected representative in the single sculls event – contesting the President's Cup – at the Interstate Regatta, winning the silver medal.

The Watts crew made the A final, finishing a close 3rd place after a hard-fought battle and missed the Olympic cut-off qualification by one second.