Sir Thomas Watson, 1st Baronet, was a British physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 who is primarily known for describing the water hammer pulse found in aortic regurgitation in 1844. He was President of the Royal College of Physicians‎ from 1862 to 1866.

In 1833, Dominic Corrigan

Dominic Corrigan

Sir Dominic Corrigan was a physician, known for his original observations in heart disease. The abnormal "collapsing" pulse of aortic valve insufficiency is named Corrigan's pulse after him.-Birth and Education:The son of a dealer in agricultural tools, Corrigan was educated in St...

, a British physician, first described the visible abrupt distention and collapse of carotid arteries in patients with aortic insufficiency

Aortic insufficiency

Aortic insufficiency , also known as aortic regurgitation , is the leaking of the aortic valve of the heart that causes blood to flow in the reverse direction during ventricular diastole, from the aorta into the left ventricle....

. Watson went on to investigate the palpable pulse

Pulse

In medicine, one's pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck , at the wrist , behind the knee , on the inside of the elbow , and near the...

 in these patients and, following his elaboration, the clinical sign is also referred to as Watson's pulse.