diff --git a/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/templates/_helpers.tpl b/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/templates/_helpers.tpl
index f2d1aee2b..4cdabde82 100644
--- a/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/templates/_helpers.tpl
+++ b/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/templates/_helpers.tpl
@@ -122,3 +122,25 @@ null
 {{- tpl (toYaml (dict $k $v)) $root }}
 {{ end }}
 {{- end }}
+
+{{/*
+altinity-clickhouse-operator.configmap-files merges watchNamespaces into the
+operator config before rendering the ConfigMap data block.
+
+This exists because configs.files.config.yaml.watch.namespaces.include is
+deep inside a nested structure — Helm's values merge cannot target it
+directly. Instead we deepCopy the files map, patch the nested value in-place,
+and pass the result to configmap-data.
+
+Arguments (list): root context, configs.files, watchNamespaces list
+*/}}
+{{- define "altinity-clickhouse-operator.configmap-files" -}}
+{{- $root := index . 0 -}}
+{{- $files := deepCopy (index . 1) -}}
+{{- $watchNamespaces := index . 2 -}}
+{{- if $watchNamespaces -}}
+  {{- $namespaces := index (index (index $files "config.yaml") "watch") "namespaces" -}}
+  {{- $_ := set $namespaces "include" $watchNamespaces -}}
+{{- end -}}
+{{- include "altinity-clickhouse-operator.configmap-data" (list $root $files) -}}
+{{- end -}}
diff --git a/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/templates/generated/ConfigMap-etc-clickhouse-operator-files.yaml b/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/templates/generated/ConfigMap-etc-clickhouse-operator-files.yaml
index bc6d21dd1..df1886ac3 100644
--- a/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/templates/generated/ConfigMap-etc-clickhouse-operator-files.yaml
+++ b/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/templates/generated/ConfigMap-etc-clickhouse-operator-files.yaml
@@ -11,4 +11,4 @@ metadata:
   namespace: {{ include "altinity-clickhouse-operator.namespace" . }}
   labels: {{ include "altinity-clickhouse-operator.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
   annotations: {{ include "altinity-clickhouse-operator.annotations" . | nindent 4 }}
-data: {{ include "altinity-clickhouse-operator.configmap-data" (list . .Values.configs.files) | nindent 2 }}
+data: {{ include "altinity-clickhouse-operator.configmap-files" (list . .Values.configs.files .Values.watchNamespaces) | nindent 2 }}
diff --git a/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/values.yaml b/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/values.yaml
index b7579fce9..c5ca1a8bd 100644
--- a/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/values.yaml
+++ b/deploy/helm/clickhouse-operator/values.yaml
@@ -147,6 +147,11 @@ podAnnotations:
   prometheus.io/scrape: 'true'
   clickhouse-operator-metrics/port: '9999'
   clickhouse-operator-metrics/scrape: 'true'
+# watchNamespaces -- namespaces where the operator watches for ClickHouseInstallation resources.
+# If empty, the operator watches only its own namespace (or all namespaces when running in kube-system).
+# Use [".*"] to watch all namespaces.
+# Example: watchNamespaces: ["clickhouse", "my-other-namespace"]
+watchNamespaces: []
 # nameOverride -- override name of the chart
 nameOverride: ""
 # fullnameOverride -- full name of the chart.