 Watts became a constructor to the Admiralty from 1870 to 1885, and reached the rank of Chief constructor.From 1885 to 1901 he was director of the War Shipping department of Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. at Elswick (subsequently returning as a director of the company in 1912); but in 1902 he was appointed Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty.He held this post until 1912, when he was succeeded by Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt and became Adviser to the Admiralty on Naval Construction.