Traveling abroad with an expensive watch

Really, if you are concerned about, leave it at home. Buy a $5 watch if you feel the necessity to have a watch. This is one worry which is so easy to avoid.

Now if you want to travel with it, you can. Sometime between departure and arrival you will get a Customs Declaration Form and the rules are usually found on the back. Any embassy for the destination country should be able to provide you the form in advance.

When there is a personal limit as to good you can bring in, it will be stated and you will have to fill the declaration statement should your watch exceed that amount. Some countries have small limits (under $1000) and some large ones ($10000).

Exceeding the limit usually means filling out an additional declaration for the item with its serial number and value. You may be asked to deposit import duties on arrival which you get back on departure when you show that the item is still with you.

You're more likely to get in trouble going back home with it from a country where those things are a lot cheaper to buy and/or there's a lot of counterfeits going around.
Take your original receipt (or at the very least a copy showing it's made out to your name) from a dealer in your own country you can present to customs if challenged.

I am also a fan of expensive and high-quality watches. and as rightly noted above. Just point them in the customs declaration as your personal property! but in general, as shown, for such things as watches, Russian customs and border guards virtually ignored.