Background
Watt was the only son of John Watt, Sheriff of Ayrshire and his wife Jane Baird.
Watt was the only son of John Watt, Sheriff of Ayrshire and his wife Jane Baird.
He was educated at Kilmarnock Academy and at the University of Geneva.
His career ended in scandal and imprisonment. He was a merchant in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow and chairman of Maxim-Weston Electric Company and the New Chile Mining Company He was the author of "Lectures on Practical Electricity."
In June 1888, he was suing a fellow Member of Parliament, Charles Cameron, who represented Glasgow College.
Cameron had claimed in his newspaper North British Daily Mail that an address given by Watt was plagiarism.
In July 1892, Watt was forced to pay damages after losing a libel action. At the general election in July 1892, he stood again for re-election, this time as an Independent Liberal, but came a poor fourth with only 179 votes (23% of the total).
Watt became party to several legal battles.
23rd United Kingdom Parliament. 24th United Kingdom Parliament]
At the 1885 general election Watt was elected as the Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for the newly created Camlachie division of Glasgow, and was re-elected in 1886.