James Craig Watson (January 28, 1838 – November 23, 1880) was a Canadian-American astronomer, discoverer of comets and minor planets, director of the University of Michigan's Detroit Observatory in Ann Arbor, and awarded with the Lalande Prize in 1869.

He graduated with a BA in 1857 and received a master's degree on examination after two years' study in astronomy under professor Franz Brünnow.

Seeking to silence critics who doubted his claims to have discovered Vulcan, he also personally paid to construct an underground observatory, in a misguided attempt to observe planets in the daytime.

[3] He had amassed a considerable fortune through non-astronomical business activities and, by bequest, established the James Craig Watson Medal, awarded every two years by the National Academy of Sciences for contributions to astronomy.

His successor, Edward Holden, completed Watson's underground observatory, but declared it useless after he found not even the brightest stars could be observed.

This obsession, in the view of the University of Michigan's first president, Henry Philip Tappan, led Watson to do nothing while serving as director of the Detroit Observatory during Brünnow's brief absence from 1859 to 1860.

Watson also during his career helped reduce Washington Zones for the United States Office of Coast Survey solely for the money.

In another action motivated by money, Watson built a house in Ann Arbor on South University Avenue for $5000 but still could not pay for it after gathering all his resources and borrowing $2000.

His carelessness is reflected in the fact that he once gave passing grades to an entire class, including to a student who died two weeks into the term.

James C. Watson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.A.S., &c &c &c proposes to make is of the Gregorian construction and will bear a magnifying power of 1200 Times!

[8]In addition to this, Watson frequently committed plagiarism, including from Brünnow, and he received a variety of honorary degrees by asking for them rather than being honored with them (e.g.