Horological Meandering

Coveting with other people want is as old as time and with a growing wealth gap globally security and safety has become more a concern than ever before and now after reading about this latest example: www.watchprosite.com I myself have been a vict... 

I'm not sure that you can do much about it other than service it at an unauthorized place.... What an unfortunate sequence of events when you end up getting into a 'void' like that one........ Wish I could be more encouraging or constructive....

which sometimes we are too excited not to do if we find our dream piece

Currently there's more than one stolen watch database and each search of a database requires payment. Ok for a professional reseller, but it limits usage to seasoned professionals and private buyers who purchase online and are careful enough to check agai... 

I just didn’t want to read that this was your personal experience…which thankfully it is not.👍🏽

Sad to hear but your title more or less sums it up. If you file a police report, there is a chance you have to surrender the watch without any assurance of getting your money back. To get recourse from the seller would seem difficult too if you all are no... 

You reported a stolen serial number to a brand, they see it is stolen. In your example the original owner was paid out by their insurer, meaning the new legal owner of that watch is the insurance company. The watch brand would inform the insurance company... 

At the end of the day, that's all you can really do.

in the hypothetical country of sale/purchase (or even across countries), would there not be protection for innocent purchasers in good faith for paid good money for what they would not have suspected was stolen goods?

...who did not know or have reason to know of stolen goods. This is a legitimate legal (and ethical) concept not to continue to create victims (subsequent purchasers) who acted in good faith. The original owner/victim can protect himself via security and ... 

. . . if more than $20K, there's an obvious answer. If less, there's a different obvious answer.

Your hypothetical situation is exactly why you need to fully trust the seller.