
Over the last three years Watson has been increasingly impressing juries at the Best of NeoCon competition. In 2017, it won a Best of NeoCon Silver Award for the mobile storage system that is now a part of its Tonic Benching solution. The Storage Elements offer users a range of options depending on need, but all the elements are designed to be compact and space saving – a fortuitous feature in the world of shrinking square footage per person.

In 2018, it won a Gold Award for its TIA (Thoughtfully Integrated Adjustment) casegoods and table collection featuring a very slick height adjustability feature that works well works in private offices, teaming, and meeting rooms. The design approach was to start with height-adjustability (function) and make it beautiful (form) so it would integrate perfectly with the design of the room, whether private office or meeting space.

So after going from Silver in 2017 to Gold in 2018, What’s a design team to do for 2019? Enter C9: an open-plan system based on a 4-legged height adjustable table desk and a scalable cable management rail that allows the creation of unique layout topologies due to the ability to pivot rail segments at the connection joints. Acoustic/privacy panels, coordinating storage elements and a host of other well-designed accessories complete the system as introduced at NeoCon.
Because of its wide range of functional elements, Watson entered C9 in three different categories for the Best of NeoCon: Furniture Systems & Enhancements, Tables: Height adjustable/Training/Work, and Office Accessories. The three juries awarded the product line three awards: Gold for the C9 Desk, Gold for the C9 rail and Silver for the C9 Cart & Garage.

In its Statement of Intent for C9, the design team wrote, “We designed C9 for real people who work best at their desk. To imagine a new furniture system, Watson explored the open plan for insights. The result is a workstation that departs from the restrictive grid of traditional linear planning — bending space, improving sightlines, and helping people to flow more organically.


“The truth is, while the open plan works some of the time, privacy and focus are diminishing. We studied enclosure and openness to understand how they influence individuals and teams. The C9 system employs articulating rail segments that bend from zero-to-ninety degrees in either direction. C9 carves space differently – adapting to people, buildings, and organizational culture. We call it generous density.”

The design team and the way it approached the design of C9 was rather unique, breaking the overall project into discrete parts with specific problems to solve. Danish designer Morten Nickolajsen is the primary designer of the C9 Desk. From his studio in Svendborg, Denmark he was tasked with solving the problems of making a 4-legged table desk both electrically height adjustable and very handsome.
While back in Poulsbo, WA at Watson’s design studio, known as “The Orchard “ due to the company’s location on a 34-acre former orchard, Ethan Pearl led the design of the Rail, the storage components and the accessories. Mr. Pearl was also lead designer on the award-winning TIA project of 2018.
Nearly all team meetings were of the Skype-type (NB, Skype may not have been the software used…I just like the rhyme) with digital drawings traded back and forth across half the planet via the internet. Prototypes had to be shipped. For such a multi-faceted project, breaking it into almost separate pieces of the puzzle makes sense, but it also makes it more difficult to arrive at a cohesive aesthetic. In my opinion they did it well, and apparently the Best of NeoCon juries agreed.

As recent studies affirm, there is significant dissatisfaction with the open plan; however, there are also financial and cultural considerations driving the adoption of open planning. The C9 system presents a fresh approach to open planning that seems to offer designers and users an opportunity to solve many of the problems – privacy, acoustics and a sense of one’s own place, in a new way.

To learn more about Watson, I did what we all do these days: I went to its website. Too often you can’t really learn much about a company from the jargon-laden self-description found on the website, but that is not the case when you click on the “Company>About Us” buttons on Watson’s site. There is a serious and authentic ring to its declarations: “We are builders. We intend to live forever in this community. We create skilled jobs by designing and manufacturing distinctive products for discerning customers. We do this with care for humans and the earth that would make our parents and our children proud.” – Clif McKenzie, Watson CEO
“Watson’s Guiding Principles:
- Built Here: All our products are manufactured at the Orchard, our 34-acre forested headquarters in the Pacific Northwest. This state-of-the-art facility converts regionally sourced raw materials to finished goods through advanced CNC machining processes and superior handcraft.
- Distinctive Product: Each of our product lines are engineered for unmatched simplicity, beauty and durability. Our design process revolves around users’ needs and sustainable manufacturing processes.
- Practical Environmentalism: We believe we should return this world in better condition than we found it. We adhere to the concept of Practical Environmentalism in which our aggressive pursuit to minimize impact on our planet is achieved within a disciplined structure of environmental and financial accountability.
- Passionate People: We believe in the dignity of the working woman and man. We foster this dignity by providing competitive compensation and benefits, sharing our profits and maintaining high expectations.
- Financial Stability: Maintaining a strong cash position and avoiding debt enables us to thrive in economic downturns and invest in cutting edge manufacturing techniques and responsible growth.”
With design teams hitting on all cylinders (what metaphor will I use when all cars are electric?), with lofty guiding principles and a location in the beautiful Northwest that are bound to attract great talent, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of Watson at Best of NeoCon breakfasts in the future.



Various planning topologies