I have been refinishing/restoring antique furniture for more than 30 years and the best way to strip has already been mentioned.....the plastic bag route. One thing should be added...use a semi paste. I would rag off the old finish and not scrape or sand. By ragging you preserve most of the original color. Stain does penetrate the wood and by scrapping or sanding you'll remove that original color. To help bring the original color back out, try brushing on a coat of golden oak stain. It is has very little in the way of pigments and tends to not change the original color but does seem to enhance it. Go with a thinner base or water base stain as an oil base stain will fade. If stripped correctly i.e. no scrape or sand, I think the original color/patina will be left in the wood and it will look fine. Save ya a step too.

Pre cat lacquer is super durable but boy is it finicky. By that I mean it tends to fisheye more often than regular lacquer, the room temp has to be perfect, the humidity has to be way low and what ever you do, do NOT make a mistake. You'll strip it again if you make one mistake as you cannot touch it up and blend it back in like you can with regular nitro cell lacquer. It will have to be sprayed to obtain many thin coats thereby actually building a thick finish. Actually any finish you use will have to be sprayed for best results. I would use a gloss to match the original.

Your idea of Watco is a good one but it will darken the color somewhat and you will have to recoat it in the coming months so personally I wouldn't use that but it is very forgiving. Also the sheen of the Watco or tung oil isn't comparable to the original finish.

Cheers,

Bill