diff --git a/e2e/nx/src/watch.test.ts b/e2e/nx/src/watch.test.ts
index 5b863a6c5521c..bf97e6ce6ca5f 100644
--- a/e2e/nx/src/watch.test.ts
+++ b/e2e/nx/src/watch.test.ts
@@ -174,6 +174,7 @@ async function runWatch(command: string) {
         CI: 'true',
         ...getStrippedEnvironmentVariables(),
         FORCE_COLOR: 'false',
+        NX_DAEMON: 'true',
       },
       shell: true,
       stdio: 'pipe',
diff --git a/packages/nx/src/command-line/watch/watch.ts b/packages/nx/src/command-line/watch/watch.ts
index 73c6d7440f235..5b673b48df9d0 100644
--- a/packages/nx/src/command-line/watch/watch.ts
+++ b/packages/nx/src/command-line/watch/watch.ts
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ export async function watch(args: WatchArguments) {
     process.env.NX_VERBOSE_LOGGING = 'true';
   }
 
-  if (daemonClient.enabled()) {
+  if (!daemonClient.enabled()) {
     output.error({
       title:
         'Daemon is not running. The watch command is not supported without the Nx Daemon.',