The hulking blond's aggressive 161 sealed with a match-winning six that set Australia off to a great start in their one-day series against England in Melbourne last month was just the latest highlight.
The 29-year-old has maintained his form while better-known batsmen have slumped and won his second successive Allan Border Medal when the award for the outstanding Australian cricketer of the year was announced on Monday.
Considering his past, the fact that he has managed to play without injury throughout a gruelling Australian summer has been impressive.
Injuries to his back, hamstring, calf and hip, plus a dislocated shoulder, all disrupted his international career after he made his one-day debut for his country in 2002.
Watson now accepts that his determination to become a match-winning all-rounder in the style of former England captain Flintoff contributed to his problems.
"It's true I became obsessed with being Australia's answer to Freddie Flintoff," he recently told Inside Cricket magazine.
"I wanted to be that player so much. I now know that it was something that held me back, being too intense and over-training. It was my downfall."
With the injuries preventing him from fulfilling his potential, Watson decided to stay away from weights, reduced his alcohol consumption to the odd beer and enjoyed playing blues guitar to help clear his mind of pressure.
Whatever it was that did the trick, he has succeeded in staying fit for nearly two years and cemented himself as an opener for both the test and one-day sides, even if the need to stay fresh for the batting has limited his role as a bowler.
A natural successor to fellow Queenslander Matthew Hayden at the top of the batting order, the barrel-chested Watson can make bowlers pay dearly for poor deliveries with big hits but he also has deftness in some of his strokes.
Although he has struggled to convert 50s into 100s on the test arena, that has not been a problem in the shorter form of the game.
Five one-day centuries compares to his near-contemporary Michael Clarke. That two of them came in run chases in the semi-final and final of the 2009 Champions Trophy indicates he can be relied on to make telling contributions.
His 2003 World Cup campaign was ended before it started by stress fractures in his back, while his 2007 tournament was hampered by the troublesome calf and Watson hopes to play a more significant role this year.
With a one-day batting average of more than 40 and a strike rate of 34 with his medium pace bowling, he has finally become what he always wanted to be, one of the top all- rounders in world cricket.
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