Following two weeks of testing and calibrating equipment in Puget Sound, "Watts" embarked upon her first voyage on 17 May. She headed for San Diego and a month of shakedown training. She returned to Bremerton, Wash. on 26 June and underwent three weeks of post-shakedown availability. On 12 July, she departed Bremerton in company with battleships (BB-41) and "West Virginia" (BB-48) bound for San Diego. The destroyer remained at San Diego until the 22d, at which time she put to sea in the screen of a Hawaii-bound convoy of troop transports. She arrived in Pearl Harbor on 29 July and remained only until 3 August when she stood out with Destroyer Division 113 (DesDiv 113) and shaped a course for Aleutian waters. On 8 August, "Watts" led her division mates into port at Adak, Alaska.