diff --git a/kiali-operator/templates/deployment.yaml b/kiali-operator/templates/deployment.yaml
index 5f70bb4..ced80b4 100644
--- a/kiali-operator/templates/deployment.yaml
+++ b/kiali-operator/templates/deployment.yaml
@@ -49,11 +49,7 @@ spec:
         args:
         - "--zap-log-level=info"
         - "--leader-election-id={{ include "kiali-operator.fullname" . }}"
-{{- if .Capabilities.APIVersions.Has "route.openshift.io/v1" }}
-        - "--watches-file=./watches-os.yaml"
-{{- else }}
-        - "--watches-file=./watches-k8s.yaml"
-{{- end }}
+        - "--watches-file=./$(WATCHES_FILE)"
         securityContext:
         {{- if .Values.securityContext }}
         {{- toYaml .Values.securityContext | nindent 10 }}
@@ -114,6 +110,16 @@ spec:
           value: "/tmp/ansible/tmp"
         - name: ANSIBLE_REMOTE_TEMP
           value: "/tmp/ansible/tmp"
+        - name: WATCHES_FILE
+{{- if .Values.watchesFile }}
+          value: "{{ .Values.watchesFile }}"
+{{- else }}
+{{- if .Capabilities.APIVersions.Has "route.openshift.io/v1" }}
+          value: "watches-os.yaml"
+{{- else }}
+          value: "watches-k8s.yaml"
+{{- end }}
+{{- end }}
         {{- if .Values.env }}
         {{- toYaml .Values.env | nindent 8 }}
         {{- end }}
diff --git a/kiali-operator/values.yaml b/kiali-operator/values.yaml
index 0827938..0ece40f 100644
--- a/kiali-operator/values.yaml
+++ b/kiali-operator/values.yaml
@@ -99,6 +99,14 @@ allowAllAccessibleNamespaces: true
 # of the Istio control plane namespace (which is typically, but not necessarily, "istio-system").
 accessibleNamespacesLabel: ""
 
+# watchesFile: If specified, this determines what watches file will be used to configure the operator. There are four different
+# files that can be selected: (a) `watches-os.yaml`, (b) `watches-os-ns.yaml`, (c) `watches-k8s.yaml` or (d) `watches-k8s-ns.yaml`.
+# The first two are for OpenShift only, the last two are for non-OpenShift Kubernetes clusters. The two with "-ns" in their name
+# enable the operator to automatically update the Kiali Server with access to new namespaces as those namespaces are created in
+# the cluster. This namespace watching feature provides some advanced capabilities but is never required. It is also not
+# the default behavior and is not necessary if your Kiali CRs will have `spec.deployment.cluster_wide_access` set to `true`.
+watchesFile: ""
+
 # For what a Kiali CR spec can look like, see:
 # https://github.com/kiali/kiali-operator/blob/master/deploy/kiali/kiali_cr.yaml
 cr: