He afterwards served on the coast of Portugal and on the North American station, till in November 1837 he was appointed to the Calliope frigate, with Captain Thomas Herbert.
After two years on the coast of Brazil the Calliope was sent to China, where she was actively employed during the first Chinese war.
From February 1846 to October 1849 he commanded the Brilliant, a small frigate, on the Cape of Good Hope station; and in December 1852 was appointed to the Impérieuse, a new 50-gun steam frigate, then, and for some years later, considered one of the finest ships in the navy.
In 1854 she was sent up the Baltic in advance of the fleet, Watson being senior officer of the squadron of small vessels appointed to watch the breaking up of the ice, and to see that no Russian ships of war got to sea.
He was married and left issue; his son, Captain Burges Watson, R.N., is now (1899) superintendent of Pembroke Dockyard.