Martin Watt graduated from the Potchefstroom University in South Africa with the degrees Bachelor of Music (1991) and Bachelor of Music Honours (1992), both cum laude. Thereafter he continued with his studies in composition under the internationally acclaimed composer Prof. Peter Klatzow at the University of Cape Town where he obtained the Master of Music degree, also cum laude. Numerous national and international scholarships assisted him to further his studies with the renowned British composer Prof. Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1994 to 1995. Here he received the Diploma of Advanced Studies in Composition and also won the prestigious Charles Lucas prize.

Upon his return to South Africa, he became a part-time lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Pretoria lecturing in music theory. Here he also obtained a Doctorate in Music in 1996. From 1998-2000 he was a post doctoral research fellow at the same university, researching in historical musicology as well as co-editing a proposed Anthology of South African Art Music.

From 2000–2003 he was lecturer in the Music Division of the School of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where he taught music theory and analysis, history of music and general music knowledge. In 2004 he accepted a senior lectureship in the School of Music at the North-West University in Potchefstroom where he taught music theory, composition and music technology. In 2004 he was the only South African member of a pan-African panel of experts who selected a new anthem for the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In May 2007 he was a guest lecturer at the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands. From 2008 he is a senior lecturer in music theory at the South African College of Music of the University of Cape Town.

Dr. Watt is a well-known composer and has written over 30 works, many of them commissioned by prominent organizations and performers. His music has been performed, broadcast and recorded in South Africa, Europe, Scandinavia, China and the United States. He is an active musicologist and has read papers at various national and international conferences and he has published on a variety of topics related to South African music in peer-reviewed journals.