He was sent to Pasadena, California by physicist Robert A. Millikan to oversee the construction of the first physics laboratory on the Caltech campus, then called the Throop Polytechnic Institute.
Watson worked closely with Millikan, Arthur Noyes and George Ellery Hale to build the school's physics department into a premier research institutions.
[3] In 1922, Watson was approached by a group of local high school science teachers who were struggling to understand the latest developments in physics.
The lectures would repeat the weekly laboratory demonstrations he gave to his first and second-year physics students, offering digestible explanations of theory without the complex mathematics underpinnings.
[7] The couple met in Greece and traveled frequently throughout their relationship, including a six month tour through the Middle East in 1956 and a South America trip in 1958.
[2] Upon Watson's death, Elsa Werner donated the couple's collection of Indian art to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where it was put on display in 1971.