Born in Northwich, Bob Watkins began his working life as an apprentice at the printing machinery manufacturer Linotype & Machinery. He completed the five year apprenticeship by decided that engineering was not the career he wanted. He left Linotype and Machinery and attended a local Art School to train as a photographer before continuing his studies at a college in Surrey. Part of his course work led him back to the Linotype factory at Broadheath to take photographs of the employees. He still works as a documentary photographer.