His principal research interest is lipidology and cardiovascular disease.

Contribution to field of research: Professor Watts has published extensively, with key papers on the angiographic regression of coronary artery disease, endothelial dysfunction in dyslipidaemia and diabetes, use of stable isotopes in lipoprotein research, and the early detection of diabetic nephropathy. He was one of the first to publish on diabetic microalbuminuria, stable isotopes in lipoprotein research and vascular dysfunction in hypercholesterolaemia; he led the St Thomas’ Atherosclerosis Regression Study. Professor Watts has over 450 published works to his credit, including scientific articles, reviews and editorials, book chapters (14) and monographs (3), mostly as senior author. In 2013-14 he had invited reviews and editorials in Nature Cardiology, Lancet, Diabetes, Circulation Research and Progress in Lipid Research. Professor Watts currently has 20,126 career citations (Google Scholar 2015).He is an editor (associate, board) of Clinical Science, Journal of Clinical Lipidology, Current Opinion in Lipidology, Atherosclerosis.