diff --git a/drivers/watchdog/watchdog_hrtimer_pretimeout.c b/drivers/watchdog/watchdog_hrtimer_pretimeout.c
index fbc7eecd8b20..49a05ea60c97 100644
--- a/drivers/watchdog/watchdog_hrtimer_pretimeout.c
+++ b/drivers/watchdog/watchdog_hrtimer_pretimeout.c
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ void watchdog_hrtimer_pretimeout_init(struct watchdog_device *wdd)
 void watchdog_hrtimer_pretimeout_start(struct watchdog_device *wdd)
 {
 	if (!(wdd->info->options & WDIOF_PRETIMEOUT) &&
+	    wdd->pretimeout &&
 	    !watchdog_pretimeout_invalid(wdd, wdd->pretimeout))
 		hrtimer_start(&wdd->wd_data->pretimeout_timer,
 			      ktime_set(wdd->timeout - wdd->pretimeout, 0),