diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/watcher/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/Watcher.java b/x-pack/plugin/watcher/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/Watcher.java
index 4c2f0cc2c5b04..7af26953ff68d 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/watcher/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/Watcher.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/watcher/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/Watcher.java
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionRequest;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionResponse;
+import org.elasticsearch.action.bulk.BackoffPolicy;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.bulk.BulkItemResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.bulk.BulkProcessor;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.bulk.BulkRequest;
@@ -395,6 +396,7 @@ public void afterBulk(long executionId, BulkRequest request, Throwable failure)
             .setBulkActions(SETTING_BULK_ACTIONS.get(settings))
             .setBulkSize(SETTING_BULK_SIZE.get(settings))
             .setConcurrentRequests(SETTING_BULK_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS.get(settings))
+            .setBackoffPolicy(BackoffPolicy.noBackoff())
             .build();
 
         HistoryStore historyStore = new HistoryStore(bulkProcessor);