diff --git a/pkg/controller/deployment/util/deployment_util.go b/pkg/controller/deployment/util/deployment_util.go
index b4c8fb48a25..3c33db26531 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/deployment/util/deployment_util.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/deployment/util/deployment_util.go
@@ -253,7 +253,23 @@ func SetNewReplicaSetAnnotations(deployment *extensions.Deployment, newRS *exten
 	// The newRS's revision should be the greatest among all RSes. Usually, its revision number is newRevision (the max revision number
 	// of all old RSes + 1). However, it's possible that some of the old RSes are deleted after the newRS revision being updated, and
 	// newRevision becomes smaller than newRS's revision. We should only update newRS revision when it's smaller than newRevision.
-	if oldRevision < newRevision {
+
+	oldRevisionInt, err := strconv.ParseInt(oldRevision, 10, 64)
+	if err != nil {
+		if oldRevision != "" {
+			glog.Warningf("Updating replica set revision OldRevision not int %s", err)
+			return false
+		}
+		//If the RS annotation is empty then initialise it to 0
+		oldRevisionInt = 0
+	}
+	newRevisionInt, err := strconv.ParseInt(newRevision, 10, 64)
+	if err != nil {
+		glog.Warningf("Updating replica set revision NewRevision not int %s", err)
+		return false
+	}
+	glog.Warningf("OldRevision=%d Newrevsion=%d\n", oldRevisionInt, newRevisionInt)
+	if oldRevisionInt < newRevisionInt {
 		newRS.Annotations[RevisionAnnotation] = newRevision
 		annotationChanged = true
 		glog.V(4).Infof("Updating replica set %q revision to %s", newRS.Name, newRevision)