diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher/cacher.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher/cacher.go
index 0f5c0848dae..2cd90d64a99 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher/cacher.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher/cacher.go
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ var (
 		},
 		[]string{"resource"},
 	)
+	emptyFunc = func() {}
 )
 
 func init() {
@@ -339,21 +340,6 @@ func (c *Cacher) Watch(ctx context.Context, key string, resourceVersion string,
 
 	c.ready.wait()
 
-	// We explicitly use thread unsafe version and do locking ourself to ensure that
-	// no new events will be processed in the meantime. The watchCache will be unlocked
-	// on return from this function.
-	// Note that we cannot do it under Cacher lock, to avoid a deadlock, since the
-	// underlying watchCache is calling processEvent under its lock.
-	c.watchCache.RLock()
-	defer c.watchCache.RUnlock()
-	initEvents, err := c.watchCache.GetAllEventsSinceThreadUnsafe(watchRV)
-	if err != nil {
-		// To match the uncached watch implementation, once we have passed authn/authz/admission,
-		// and successfully parsed a resource version, other errors must fail with a watch event of type ERROR,
-		// rather than a directly returned error.
-		return newErrWatcher(err), nil
-	}
-
 	triggerValue, triggerSupported := "", false
 	// TODO: Currently we assume that in a given Cacher object, any <predicate> that is
 	// passed here is aware of exactly the same trigger (at most one).
@@ -377,6 +363,25 @@ func (c *Cacher) Watch(ctx context.Context, key string, resourceVersion string,
 		chanSize = 1000
 	}
 
+	// Create a watcher here to reduce memory allocations under lock,
+	// given that memory allocation may trigger GC and block the thread.
+	watcher := newCacheWatcher(chanSize, filterWithAttrsFunction(key, pred), emptyFunc, c.versioner)
+
+	// We explicitly use thread unsafe version and do locking ourself to ensure that
+	// no new events will be processed in the meantime. The watchCache will be unlocked
+	// on return from this function.
+	// Note that we cannot do it under Cacher lock, to avoid a deadlock, since the
+	// underlying watchCache is calling processEvent under its lock.
+	c.watchCache.RLock()
+	defer c.watchCache.RUnlock()
+	initEvents, err := c.watchCache.GetAllEventsSinceThreadUnsafe(watchRV)
+	if err != nil {
+		// To match the uncached watch implementation, once we have passed authn/authz/admission,
+		// and successfully parsed a resource version, other errors must fail with a watch event of type ERROR,
+		// rather than a directly returned error.
+		return newErrWatcher(err), nil
+	}
+
 	// With some events already sent, update resourceVersion so that
 	// events that were buffered and not yet processed won't be delivered
 	// to this watcher second time causing going back in time.
@@ -384,13 +389,16 @@ func (c *Cacher) Watch(ctx context.Context, key string, resourceVersion string,
 		watchRV = initEvents[len(initEvents)-1].ResourceVersion
 	}
 
-	c.Lock()
-	defer c.Unlock()
-	forget := forgetWatcher(c, c.watcherIdx, triggerValue, triggerSupported)
-	watcher := newCacheWatcher(watchRV, chanSize, initEvents, filterWithAttrsFunction(key, pred), forget, c.versioner)
+	func() {
+		c.Lock()
+		defer c.Unlock()
+		// Update watcher.forget function once we can compute it.
+		watcher.forget = forgetWatcher(c, c.watcherIdx, triggerValue, triggerSupported)
+		c.watchers.addWatcher(watcher, c.watcherIdx, triggerValue, triggerSupported)
+		c.watcherIdx++
+	}()
 
-	c.watchers.addWatcher(watcher, c.watcherIdx, triggerValue, triggerSupported)
-	c.watcherIdx++
+	go watcher.process(initEvents, watchRV)
 	return watcher, nil
 }
 
@@ -879,8 +887,8 @@ type cacheWatcher struct {
 	versioner storage.Versioner
 }
 
-func newCacheWatcher(resourceVersion uint64, chanSize int, initEvents []*watchCacheEvent, filter filterWithAttrsFunc, forget func(), versioner storage.Versioner) *cacheWatcher {
-	watcher := &cacheWatcher{
+func newCacheWatcher(chanSize int, filter filterWithAttrsFunc, forget func(), versioner storage.Versioner) *cacheWatcher {
+	return &cacheWatcher{
 		input:     make(chan *watchCacheEvent, chanSize),
 		result:    make(chan watch.Event, chanSize),
 		done:      make(chan struct{}),
@@ -889,8 +897,6 @@ func newCacheWatcher(resourceVersion uint64, chanSize int, initEvents []*watchCa
 		forget:    forget,
 		versioner: versioner,
 	}
-	go watcher.process(initEvents, resourceVersion)
-	return watcher
 }
 
 // Implements watch.Interface.
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher/cacher_whitebox_test.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher/cacher_whitebox_test.go
index 2de915eb5a9..f102095f05d 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher/cacher_whitebox_test.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher/cacher_whitebox_test.go
@@ -63,7 +63,8 @@ func TestCacheWatcherCleanupNotBlockedByResult(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 	// set the size of the buffer of w.result to 0, so that the writes to
 	// w.result is blocked.
-	w = newCacheWatcher(0, 0, initEvents, filter, forget, testVersioner{})
+	w = newCacheWatcher(0, filter, forget, testVersioner{})
+	go w.process(initEvents, 0)
 	w.Stop()
 	if err := wait.PollImmediate(1*time.Second, 5*time.Second, func() (bool, error) {
 		lock.RLock()
@@ -181,7 +182,8 @@ TestCase:
 		for j := range testCase.events {
 			testCase.events[j].ResourceVersion = uint64(j) + 1
 		}
-		w := newCacheWatcher(0, 0, testCase.events, filter, forget, testVersioner{})
+		w := newCacheWatcher(0, filter, forget, testVersioner{})
+		go w.process(testCase.events, 0)
 		ch := w.ResultChan()
 		for j, event := range testCase.expected {
 			e := <-ch