diff --git a/buildman/manager/ephemeral.py b/buildman/manager/ephemeral.py
index a1b7809c2..90cd1cd68 100644
--- a/buildman/manager/ephemeral.py
+++ b/buildman/manager/ephemeral.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ from util.morecollections import AttrDict
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
-ETCD_DISABLE_TIMEOUT = 0
+ETCD_MAX_WATCH_TIMEOUT = 30
 EC2_API_TIMEOUT = 20
 RETRY_IMMEDIATELY_TIMEOUT = 0
 
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ class EphemeralBuilderManager(BaseManager):
                        '*' if recursive else '', existing_index, etcd_result)
 
         except ReadTimeoutError:
-          logger.debug('Read-timeout on etcd watch: %s', etcd_key)
+          logger.debug('Read-timeout on etcd watch %s, rescheduling', etcd_key)
 
         except (ProtocolError, etcd.EtcdException):
           logger.exception('Exception on etcd watch: %s', etcd_key)
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ class EphemeralBuilderManager(BaseManager):
                    '*' if recursive else '', start_index)
 
       watch_future = self._etcd_client.watch(etcd_key, recursive=recursive, index=start_index,
-                                             timeout=ETCD_DISABLE_TIMEOUT)
+                                             timeout=ETCD_MAX_WATCH_TIMEOUT)
       watch_future.add_done_callback(callback_wrapper)
 
       self._watch_tasks[watch_task_key] = async(watch_future)