He moved to New York, where he lived in a loft building on Cooper Square which also had as a tenant Leroi Jones (later Amiri Baraka), with whom he participated in the Organization of Young Men.
Returning to New York in 1963, Watts studied under Don Cherry and played in his loft and around the city with Jiunie Booth, Henry Grimes, J.C. Moses, and others.
He also continued painting, producing work strongly influenced by Willem de Kooning.
Watts's loft attracted many established and up-and-coming musicians who would hang out there and play at parties, including Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, and Pharoah Sanders.
Watts moved back and forth between Europe and New York; he taught briefly at Wesleyan University, assisting Sam Rivers and Clifford Thornton.