Lynda Watson was born and raised in Orange, CA. She did undergraduate work in Drawing and Illustration, Crafts and Jewelry, and received an MA and MFA in Jewelry/Metalsmithing  from California State University, Long Beach. In 1970, she was hired to build a Jewelry/Metals Program at Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA where she taught full time for 25 yeas.

She was awarded two individual National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and was named Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year in 1998. In 2022, she was selected Master Metalsmith by the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN.

Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and is in the permanent collections of museums here and abroad. It has appeared in numerous books and periodicals and a catalog of her work was recently published by the Metal Museum.

She continues to make and show her work, which is based on her life and travels.