Watson began her career on the stage debuting on Broadway in the play "Hearts Aflame" in 1902. Her next play was "The Girl with Green Eyes", the first of several Clyde Fitch stories. At the end of 1903, Watson appeared in Fitch's "Glad of It". This play featured several young performers, including Watson who moved to major Broadway or motion picture prominence: Robert Warwick, John Barrymore, Thomas Meighan, and Grant Mitchell. For the rest of the decade, she appeared in several more Fitch stories into the 1910s. Fitch died in 1909.