diff --git a/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/WatchConnectionManager.java b/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/WatchConnectionManager.java
index 2847f4d7688..986d1ce0396 100644
--- a/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/WatchConnectionManager.java
+++ b/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/WatchConnectionManager.java
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@
 
 import static io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.utils.Utils.isNotNullOrEmpty;
 import static java.net.HttpURLConnection.HTTP_GONE;
+import static java.net.HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK;
 
 public class WatchConnectionManager<T extends HasMetadata, L extends KubernetesResourceList<T>> implements Watch {
 
@@ -193,6 +194,15 @@ public void onFailure(IOException e, Response response) {
           return;
         }
 
+        // We do not expect a 200 in response to the websocket connection. If it occurs, we throw
+        // an exception and try the watch via a persistent HTTP Get.
+        if (response != null && response.code() == HTTP_OK) {
+          queue.add(new KubernetesClientException("Received 200 on websocket",
+            response.code(), null));
+          response.body().close();
+          return;
+        }
+
         if (response != null) {
           // We only need to queue startup failures.
           Status status = OperationSupport.createStatus(response);