Apparently, the Russian Orthodox Church doesn't want the world to know that they're shot callers and big ballers, so they decided to manipulate the image above in order to remove the $30,000 watch from the Patriarchate's wrist.
Russian knowledge of Photoshop must not be up to snuff, because they forgot to remove the reflection of the watch from the table, so the controversy ensued.
When asked for an explanation, the watch's existence was denied and the Church vowed to look into this "technical mistake". The real mistake is that the Patriarchate is forced to greet the public without his pimp chalice and medallion chain!
Link
patriarch conspiracy paschal scandal
The truth has many sides - the juicy side just sells better.
They may have removed the watch to improve the picture, for cosmetic purposes, and not to tone down the ostentation. Dude should still come clean and say, "It's none of your business what watch I wear". If he lied, then that's just wrong.