He emigrated to New Zealand in 1905 and after living at Huntly south of Auckland for a year, was employed as groundsman at the Carisbrook ground in Dunedin, replacing George Mills.
[3][4] Considered a "fine batsman" who played club cricket for Carisbrook, Watson made his representative debut for the Otago provincial side during the 1907–08 season.
[5] The Press, a Christchurch paper, described the innings as "capital all-round batting" with many "first-class" strokes and considered him "one of Otago's best batsmen".
[15][16] He played for the West Christchurch club and made a single first-class appearance for Canterbury in a December 1917 match against Otago.
[8][17] By December 1918 he was taking charge of coaching the Canterbury representative side[18] and in the winter of 1919 he set up an indoor cricket school in Christchurch, something considered "quite a novelty" in the city.