diff --git a/src/core/path.c b/src/core/path.c
index 8f2971a4e1..d27e923ace 100644
--- a/src/core/path.c
+++ b/src/core/path.c
@@ -71,9 +71,9 @@ int path_spec_watch(PathSpec *s, sd_event_io_handler_t handler) {
         assert(!strstr(s->path, "//"));
 
         for (slash = strchr(s->path, '/'); ; slash = strchr(slash+1, '/')) {
-                char *cut = NULL;
-                int flags;
-                char tmp;
+                bool incomplete = false;
+                int flags, wd = -1;
+                char tmp, *cut;
 
                 if (slash) {
                         cut = slash + (slash == s->path);
@@ -81,28 +81,50 @@ int path_spec_watch(PathSpec *s, sd_event_io_handler_t handler) {
                         *cut = '\0';
 
                         flags = IN_MOVE_SELF | IN_DELETE_SELF | IN_ATTRIB | IN_CREATE | IN_MOVED_TO;
-                } else
+                } else {
+                        cut = NULL;
                         flags = flags_table[s->type];
-
-                r = inotify_add_watch(s->inotify_fd, s->path, flags);
-                if (r < 0) {
-                        if (IN_SET(errno, EACCES, ENOENT)) {
-                                if (cut)
-                                        *cut = tmp;
-                                break;
-                        }
-
-                        /* This second call to inotify_add_watch() should fail like the previous
-                         * one and is done for logging the error in a comprehensive way. */
-                        r = inotify_add_watch_and_warn(s->inotify_fd, s->path, flags);
-                        if (r < 0) {
-                                if (cut)
-                                        *cut = tmp;
-                                goto fail;
-                        }
-
-                        /* Hmm, we succeeded in adding the watch this time... let's continue. */
                 }
+
+                /* If this is a symlink watch both the symlink inode and where it points to. If the inode is
+                 * not a symlink both calls will install the same watch, which is redundant and doesn't
+                 * hurt. */
+                for (int follow_symlink = 0; follow_symlink < 2; follow_symlink ++) {
+                        uint32_t f = flags;
+
+                        SET_FLAG(f, IN_DONT_FOLLOW, !follow_symlink);
+
+                        wd = inotify_add_watch(s->inotify_fd, s->path, f);
+                        if (wd < 0) {
+                                if (IN_SET(errno, EACCES, ENOENT)) {
+                                        incomplete = true; /* This is an expected error, let's accept this
+                                                            * quietly: we have an incomplete watch for
+                                                            * now. */
+                                        break;
+                                }
+
+                                /* This second call to inotify_add_watch() should fail like the previous one
+                                 * and is done for logging the error in a comprehensive way. */
+                                wd = inotify_add_watch_and_warn(s->inotify_fd, s->path, f);
+                                if (wd < 0) {
+                                        if (cut)
+                                                *cut = tmp;
+
+                                        r = wd;
+                                        goto fail;
+                                }
+
+                                /* Hmm, we succeeded in adding the watch this time... let's continue. */
+                        }
+                }
+
+                if (incomplete) {
+                        if (cut)
+                                *cut = tmp;
+
+                        break;
+                }
+
                 exists = true;
 
                 /* Path exists, we don't need to watch parent too closely. */
@@ -124,7 +146,7 @@ int path_spec_watch(PathSpec *s, sd_event_io_handler_t handler) {
                         oldslash = slash;
                 else {
                         /* whole path has been iterated over */
-                        s->primary_wd = r;
+                        s->primary_wd = wd;
                         break;
                 }
         }