John Watson is emeritus conservator and curator of musical instruments at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF). His research on keyboard instrument history and conservation resulted in 34 reproduction instruments, 3 books, and numerous articles, including the entry on restorative conservation in the 2014 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Musical Instruments. His book Artifacts in Use: The Paradox of Restoration and the Conservation of Organs discusses the coexistence of preservation and restoration in the treatment of musical instruments. His copies of George Washington’s 1793 Longman & Broderip harpsichord and of a mid-eighteenth-century piano based on the earliest pantalon-inspired pianos from Saxony are detailed in the Galpin Society Journal and the Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, respectively. Both reproductions are exhibited alongside the originals in museums. He created the principal online databases of Early Pianos (EarlyPianos.org) and of harpsichords, clavichords, and their makers (Boalch.org). He received the 2020 Curt Sachs Award from the AMIS for lifetime contributions to organology, and the 2024 Anthony Baines Memorial Prize from the Galpin Society.