His first novel Starfish (1999) reintroduced Lenie Clarke from his short story "A Niche" (1990); Clarke is a deep-ocean power station worker physically altered for underwater living and the main character in the sequels: Maelstrom (2001), βehemoth: β-Max (2004) and βehemoth: Seppuku (2005).

[4] Starfish, Maelstrom, and βehemoth make up a trilogy usually referred to as "Rifters" after the modified humans designed to work in deep-ocean environments.

The novel was described by Charles Stross: "Imagine a neurobiology-obsessed version of Greg Egan writing a first contact with aliens story from the point of view of a zombie posthuman crewman aboard a starship captained by a vampire, with not dying as the boobie prize.

He was peripherally involved in the early stages of the animated science fiction film and television project Strange Frame.

Technological elements from Blindsight have been referenced in the fictional Crysis 2 "Nanosuit Brochure";[11] the creative director of BioShock 2 has cited Watts's work as an influence on that game.

Watts is alleged to have assaulted a CBP Officer and was turned over to local authorities to face charges.