The Watcher telescope is planned to begin operation in Spring 2004 in South Africa.The system has been designed to respond primarily to very precise (arcminute) gamma‐ray burst locations distributed via the internet by the GCN. Watcher will be fully automatic and the planned response time for GRBs is ∼ 30 seconds or better. In addition, the telescope will be used for blazar monitoring and the photometric detection of extra‐solar planets when GRBs are not being observed. © 2004 American Institute of Physics