A GREENOCK-born marine engineer now living in Canada is among the first people to wear the new tartan created in honour of James Watt.

Eighty-year-old Daniel Watt, who left the town 50 years ago, says he is proud to share a surname with the world famous inventor and is now sporting a tie designed in his name.

Born and brought up in Jamaica Street, the former shipyard worker's own family is steeped in industry, powered by steam.

The new tartan commissioned by Inverclyde Council to mark the 200th anniversary of his death is in demand across the globe.

Daniel, who now lives in Holland Landing, a town in the Ontario suburbs, said: "I am very proud of my name and I am always telling people about James Watt.

"I don't know if there are any family connections but my grandfather was a coal merchant, D Watt and Sons, and my father was an mining engineer.

"I worked in the shipyards in Kincaids on the last-ever steam powered ship built there in 1956."

Mass heavy industry like shipbuilding and mining was the direct result of James Watt's work to refine the steam engine and fire up the Industrial Revolution.

Like many people of his generation Daniel emigrated with his wife of 58 years, Isabel, in search of a better life for their family in 1969.

Fifty years on Daniel, who has two sons and a daughter, added: "We have settled really well in Canada and made a good life for ourselves.

"We have no family left in Greenock now, but I will be wearing my tie with pride."

Inverclyde Council teamed up with local kilt makers Kilts4Less to create the new tartan.

It marks Watt's industrial roots with dark grey for tools, light grey for steam, orange for the James Watt Institution and teal for Inverclyde Council.

James Watt died aged 83 in 1819 leaving a lasting legacy as an inventor, mechanical engineer and chemist.

Among his long list of achievements was developing the concept of horsepower and the SI unit of power, the watt, is named after him.