diff --git a/src/shared/watchdog.c b/src/shared/watchdog.c
index 4c1a9687183..2d79f7147a8 100644
--- a/src/shared/watchdog.c
+++ b/src/shared/watchdog.c
@@ -261,12 +261,15 @@ static int update_pretimeout(void) {
 
 static int update_timeout(void) {
         int r;
+        usec_t previous_timeout;
 
         assert(watchdog_timeout > 0);
 
         if (watchdog_fd < 0)
                 return 0;
 
+        previous_timeout = watchdog_timeout;
+
         if (watchdog_timeout != USEC_INFINITY) {
                 r = watchdog_set_timeout();
                 if (r < 0) {
@@ -281,8 +284,12 @@ static int update_timeout(void) {
 
         if (watchdog_timeout == USEC_INFINITY) {
                 r = watchdog_read_timeout();
-                if (r < 0)
-                        return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to query watchdog HW timeout: %m");
+                if (r < 0) {
+                        if (!ERRNO_IS_NOT_SUPPORTED(r))
+                                return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to query watchdog HW timeout: %m");
+                        log_info("Reading watchdog timeout is not supported, reusing the configured timeout.");
+                        watchdog_timeout = previous_timeout;
+                }
         }
 
         /* If the watchdog timeout was changed, the pretimeout could have been