diff --git a/pkg/tools/etcd_helper_watch.go b/pkg/tools/etcd_helper_watch.go
index 356fbf9f57a..fb66e2af25b 100644
--- a/pkg/tools/etcd_helper_watch.go
+++ b/pkg/tools/etcd_helper_watch.go
@@ -168,10 +168,11 @@ func newEtcdWatcher(list bool, include includeFunc, filter FilterFunc, encoding
 		// object. Basically, we see a lot of "401 window exceeded"
 		// errors from etcd, and that's due to the client not streaming
 		// results but rather getting them one at a time. So we really
-		// want to never block the etcd client, if possible. The 50 is
-		// arbitrary; there's a V(4) log message that prints the length
-		// so we can monitor how much of this buffer is actually used.
-		etcdIncoming: make(chan *etcd.Response, 50),
+		// want to never block the etcd client, if possible. The 100 is
+		// mostly arbitrary--we know it goes as high as 50, though.
+		// There's a V(2) log message that prints the length so we can
+		// monitor how much of this buffer is actually used.
+		etcdIncoming: make(chan *etcd.Response, 100),
 		etcdError:    make(chan error, 1),
 		etcdStop:     make(chan bool),
 		outgoing:     make(chan watch.Event),
@@ -235,6 +236,10 @@ func convertRecursiveResponse(node *etcd.Node, response *etcd.Response, incoming
 	incoming <- &copied
 }
 
+var (
+	watchChannelHWM util.HighWaterMark
+)
+
 // translate pulls stuff from etcd, converts, and pushes out the outgoing channel. Meant to be
 // called as a goroutine.
 func (w *etcdWatcher) translate() {
@@ -259,9 +264,9 @@ func (w *etcdWatcher) translate() {
 			return
 		case res, ok := <-w.etcdIncoming:
 			if ok {
-				if curLen := len(w.etcdIncoming); curLen > 0 {
+				if curLen := int64(len(w.etcdIncoming)); watchChannelHWM.Check(curLen) {
 					// Monitor if this gets backed up, and how much.
-					glog.V(4).Infof("watch: %v objects queued in channel.", curLen)
+					glog.V(2).Infof("watch: %v objects queued in channel.", curLen)
 				}
 				w.sendResult(res)
 			}
diff --git a/pkg/util/atomic_value.go b/pkg/util/atomic_value.go
index 3bb1a317601..718b712787e 100644
--- a/pkg/util/atomic_value.go
+++ b/pkg/util/atomic_value.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package util
 
 import (
 	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
 )
 
 // TODO(ArtfulCoder)
@@ -40,3 +41,20 @@ func (at *AtomicValue) Load() interface{} {
 	defer at.valueMutex.RUnlock()
 	return at.value
 }
+
+// HighWaterMark is a thread-safe object for tracking the maximum value seen
+// for some quantity.
+type HighWaterMark int64
+
+// Check returns true iff 'current' is the highest value ever seen.
+func (hwm *HighWaterMark) Check(current int64) bool {
+	for {
+		old := atomic.LoadInt64((*int64)(hwm))
+		if current <= old {
+			return false
+		}
+		if atomic.CompareAndSwapInt64((*int64)(hwm), old, current) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/util/atomic_value_test.go b/pkg/util/atomic_value_test.go
index 29b8bd076b6..0da8b848025 100644
--- a/pkg/util/atomic_value_test.go
+++ b/pkg/util/atomic_value_test.go
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ limitations under the License.
 package util
 
 import (
+	"math/rand"
+	"sync"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 )
@@ -48,3 +50,34 @@ func TestAtomicValue(t *testing.T) {
 	atomicValue.Store(10)
 	ExpectValue(t, atomicValue, 10)
 }
+
+func TestHighWaterMark(t *testing.T) {
+	var h HighWaterMark
+
+	for i := int64(10); i < 20; i++ {
+		if !h.Check(i) {
+			t.Errorf("unexpected false for %v", i)
+		}
+		if h.Check(i - 1) {
+			t.Errorf("unexpected true for %v", i-1)
+		}
+	}
+
+	m := int64(0)
+	wg := sync.WaitGroup{}
+	for i := 0; i < 300; i++ {
+		wg.Add(1)
+		v := rand.Int63()
+		go func(v int64) {
+			defer wg.Done()
+			h.Check(v)
+		}(v)
+		if v > m {
+			m = v
+		}
+	}
+	wg.Wait()
+	if m != int64(h) {
+		t.Errorf("unexpected value, wanted %v, got %v", m, int64(h))
+	}
+}