diff --git a/test/e2e/apimachinery/protocol.go b/test/e2e/apimachinery/protocol.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9effdae5c1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e/apimachinery/protocol.go
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2019 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package apimachinery
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"strconv"
+
+	g "github.com/onsi/ginkgo"
+	o "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/errors"
+	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/watch"
+	"k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes"
+
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/test/e2e/framework"
+)
+
+var _ = SIGDescribe("client-go should negotiate", func() {
+	f := framework.NewDefaultFramework("protocol")
+	f.SkipNamespaceCreation = true
+
+	for _, s := range []string{
+		"application/json",
+		"application/vnd.kubernetes.protobuf",
+		"application/vnd.kubernetes.protobuf,application/json",
+		"application/json,application/vnd.kubernetes.protobuf",
+	} {
+		accept := s
+		g.It(fmt.Sprintf("watch and report errors with accept %q", accept), func() {
+			cfg, err := framework.LoadConfig()
+			framework.ExpectNoError(err)
+
+			cfg.AcceptContentTypes = accept
+
+			c := kubernetes.NewForConfigOrDie(cfg)
+			svcs, err := c.CoreV1().Services("default").Get("kubernetes", metav1.GetOptions{})
+			framework.ExpectNoError(err)
+			rv, err := strconv.Atoi(svcs.ResourceVersion)
+			framework.ExpectNoError(err)
+			w, err := c.CoreV1().Services("default").Watch(metav1.ListOptions{ResourceVersion: strconv.Itoa(rv - 1)})
+			framework.ExpectNoError(err)
+			defer w.Stop()
+
+			evt, ok := <-w.ResultChan()
+			o.Expect(ok).To(o.BeTrue())
+			switch evt.Type {
+			case watch.Added, watch.Modified:
+				// this is allowed
+			case watch.Error:
+				err := errors.FromObject(evt.Object)
+				if errors.IsGone(err) {
+					// this is allowed, since the kubernetes object could be very old
+					break
+				}
+				if errors.IsUnexpectedObjectError(err) {
+					g.Fail(fmt.Sprintf("unexpected object, wanted v1.Status: %#v", evt.Object))
+				}
+				g.Fail(fmt.Sprintf("unexpected error: %#v", evt.Object))
+			default:
+				g.Fail(fmt.Sprintf("unexpected type %s: %#v", evt.Type, evt.Object))
+			}
+		})
+	}
+})