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 9b2cd092204..50060e9196f 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
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.*;
 import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.dsl.base.BaseOperation;
 import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.dsl.base.OperationSupport;
-import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.utils.HttpClientUtils;
 import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.utils.Utils;
 import okhttp3.*;
 import okio.ByteString;
@@ -70,7 +69,7 @@ public class WatchConnectionManager<T extends HasMetadata, L extends KubernetesR
   private final URL requestUrl;
 
   private WebSocket webSocket;
-  private OkHttpClient okhttpClient;
+  private OkHttpClient clonedClient;
 
   public WatchConnectionManager(final OkHttpClient client, final BaseOperation<T, L, ?, ?> baseOperation, final String version, final Watcher<T> watcher, final int reconnectInterval, final int reconnectLimit, long websocketTimeout, int maxIntervalExponent) throws MalformedURLException {
     this.resourceVersion = new AtomicReference<>(version); // may be a reference to null
@@ -81,8 +80,7 @@ public WatchConnectionManager(final OkHttpClient client, final BaseOperation<T,
     this.websocketTimeout = websocketTimeout;
     this.maxIntervalExponent = maxIntervalExponent;
 
-    Config requestConfig = new ConfigBuilder(baseOperation.getConfig()).withRequestTimeout((int)this.websocketTimeout).build();
-    this.okhttpClient = HttpClientUtils.createHttpClient(requestConfig);
+    this.clonedClient = client.newBuilder().readTimeout(this.websocketTimeout, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).build();
 
     // The URL is created, validated and saved once, so that reconnect attempts don't have to deal with
     // MalformedURLExceptions that would never occur
@@ -151,7 +149,7 @@ private final void runWatch() {
       .addHeader("Origin", requestUrl.getProtocol() + "://" + requestUrl.getHost() + ":" + requestUrl.getPort())
       .build();
 
-    webSocket = okhttpClient.newWebSocket(request, new WebSocketListener() {
+    webSocket = clonedClient.newWebSocket(request, new WebSocketListener() {
       @Override
       public void onOpen(final WebSocket webSocket, Response response) {
         if (response != null && response.body() != null) {