Watts was born in England before moving to Perth, Western Australia for the latter half of his schooling. He was a successful swimmer before moving to the sport of rowing, aged 13, after being identified as a talented athlete by the West Australian Institute of Sport's Talent Identification Program. He rowed at Trinity College, Perth and was a member of their champion 1st VIII of 2009. He won numerous medals at state level and first represented Australia in the junior men's four, aged 16, finishing 4th in the A final, in Linz, Austria. Aged 17 in 2009 he won the Australian National Schoolboy's single scull, the under 19 single scull, two further gold medals and one silver in various crew boats. Earlier that year, aged 16, he also claimed the WA PSA indoor ergometer record. Watts' senior rowing was initially from the Swan River Rowing Club in Perth. and later the Sydney Rowing Club when he moved east for national representation. In 2014, 2015 and 2016 Watts was seated in Western Australian men's senior eights which contested the King's Cup at the Australian Rowing Championships. In 2018 he was Western Australia's selected representative in the single sculls event – contesting the President's Cup – at the Interstate Regatta. At the 2017 Australian Championships he won the open men's quad scull national title rowing with Luke Letcher, Hamish Playfair and Caleb Antill.
International rowing career
Watts made a number of underage appearances for Australia – at the 2008 & 2010 Junior World Rowing Championships; the 2010 Youth Olympics and the 2012 & 2014 World Rowing U23 Championships, winning three bronze medals. At the 2015 World Rowing Championships on Lac d'Aiguebelette in Aiguebelette, France, he won a silver medal in the men's quadruple scull event, rowing with David Crawshay, Karsten Forsterling and Cameron Girdlestone. Watts was next selected to row Australia's double scull at the 2016 Summer Olympics with Chris Morgan, winning the B final in a very, competitive boat class. In 2017 Watts rowed Australia's double scull with Luke Letcher at two World Rowing Cups in Europe and then at the 2017 World Rowing Championships where they finished in overall seventeenth place. He had greater success in 2018 in the Australian quad scull in the World Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The crew placed third in their heat and then first in the repercharge, eliminating the Lithuanian world champions. In the final, Watts in stroke seat and the Australian quad of Caleb Antill, Nicholas Purnell and Campbell Watts rowed through most of the field from the 1000m mark and finished in second place just behind Italy for a silver world championship medal. In 2018 he was Western Australia's selected representative in the single sculls event – contesting the President's Cup – at the Interstate Regatta, winning silver. In 2019 he was selected with Alex Purnell, Antill and Girdlestone to row Australia's quad scull for the 2019 international season. They placed 2nd at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan and 4th at WRC III in Rotterdam. With Girdlestone, Campbell Watts and Hamish Playfair, Watts was selected to race Australia's quad scull at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria. The quad were looking for a top eight finish at the 2019 World Championships to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.. They won their heat and placed third in semi-final, thereby qualifying the boat for the A-final and the Tokyo 2020. They finished in overall world fourth place.
