diff --git a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/BuiltinMetricsTracer.java b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/BuiltinMetricsTracer.java
index 48fc7dcce8..cf4c850e62 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/BuiltinMetricsTracer.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/BuiltinMetricsTracer.java
@@ -50,8 +50,14 @@ class BuiltinMetricsTracer extends BigtableTracer {
   private volatile int attempt = 0;
 
   // Total application latency
-  private final Stopwatch applicationLatencyTimer = Stopwatch.createUnstarted();
+  // Total application latency needs to be atomic because it's accessed from different threads. E.g.
+  // request() from
+  // user thread and attempt failed from grpc thread.
   private final AtomicLong totalApplicationLatency = new AtomicLong(0);
+  // Stopwatch is not thread safe so this is a workaround to check if the stopwatch changes is
+  // flushed to memory.
+  private final AtomicBoolean applicationLatencyTimerIsRunning = new AtomicBoolean();
+  private final Stopwatch applicationLatencyTimer = Stopwatch.createUnstarted();
 
   // Monitored resource labels
   private String tableId = "undefined";
@@ -113,7 +119,7 @@ public void attemptStarted(Object request, int attemptNumber) {
     if (request != null) {
       this.tableId = Util.extractTableId(request);
     }
-    if (applicationLatencyTimer.isRunning()) {
+    if (applicationLatencyTimerIsRunning.compareAndSet(true, false)) {
       totalApplicationLatency.addAndGet(applicationLatencyTimer.elapsed(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS));
       applicationLatencyTimer.reset();
     }
@@ -131,7 +137,7 @@ public void attemptCancelled() {
 
   @Override
   public void attemptFailed(Throwable error, Duration delay) {
-    if (!applicationLatencyTimer.isRunning()) {
+    if (applicationLatencyTimerIsRunning.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
       applicationLatencyTimer.start();
     }
     recordAttemptCompletion(error);
@@ -159,7 +165,7 @@ public void lroStartSucceeded() {
 
   @Override
   public void onRequest() {
-    if (applicationLatencyTimer.isRunning()) {
+    if (applicationLatencyTimerIsRunning.compareAndSet(true, false)) {
       totalApplicationLatency.addAndGet(applicationLatencyTimer.elapsed(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS));
       applicationLatencyTimer.reset();
     }
@@ -167,7 +173,7 @@ public void onRequest() {
 
   @Override
   public void responseReceived() {
-    if (!applicationLatencyTimer.isRunning()) {
+    if (applicationLatencyTimerIsRunning.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
       applicationLatencyTimer.start();
     }
     if (firstResponsePerOpTimer.isRunning()) {
@@ -221,7 +227,7 @@ private void recordOperationCompletion(@Nullable Throwable status) {
 
     recorder.putRetryCount(attemptCount);
 
-    if (applicationLatencyTimer.isRunning()) {
+    if (applicationLatencyTimerIsRunning.compareAndSet(true, false)) {
       applicationLatencyTimer.stop();
       totalApplicationLatency.addAndGet(applicationLatencyTimer.elapsed(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS));
     }
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/HeaderTracerStreamingCallable.java b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/HeaderTracerStreamingCallable.java
index 31c5cf1960..8f5c9871b4 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/HeaderTracerStreamingCallable.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/HeaderTracerStreamingCallable.java
@@ -82,7 +82,8 @@ private class HeaderTracerResponseObserver<ResponseT> implements ResponseObserve
 
     @Override
     public void onStart(final StreamController controller) {
-      outerObserver.onStart(controller);
+      final StreamController tracedController = new TracedStreamController(controller, tracer);
+      outerObserver.onStart(tracedController);
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -108,4 +109,30 @@ public void onComplete() {
       outerObserver.onComplete();
     }
   }
+
+  private class TracedStreamController implements StreamController {
+    private final StreamController innerController;
+    private final BigtableTracer tracer;
+
+    TracedStreamController(StreamController innerController, BigtableTracer tracer) {
+      this.innerController = innerController;
+      this.tracer = tracer;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void cancel() {
+      innerController.cancel();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void disableAutoInboundFlowControl() {
+      innerController.disableAutoInboundFlowControl();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void request(int i) {
+      tracer.onRequest();
+      innerController.request(i);
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/BuiltinMetricsTracerTest.java b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/BuiltinMetricsTracerTest.java
index 21d4c626f9..5e62c44748 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/BuiltinMetricsTracerTest.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/metrics/BuiltinMetricsTracerTest.java
@@ -55,7 +55,6 @@
 import io.grpc.stub.StreamObserver;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
-import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
 import org.junit.After;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Rule;
@@ -128,16 +127,10 @@ public class BuiltinMetricsTracerTest {
   @Captor private ArgumentCaptor<String> zone;
   @Captor private ArgumentCaptor<String> cluster;
 
-  private Stopwatch serverRetryDelayStopwatch;
-  private AtomicLong serverTotalRetryDelay;
-
   @Before
   public void setUp() throws Exception {
     mockService = new FakeService();
 
-    serverRetryDelayStopwatch = Stopwatch.createUnstarted();
-    serverTotalRetryDelay = new AtomicLong(0);
-
     // Add an interceptor to add server-timing in headers
     ServerInterceptor trailersInterceptor =
         new ServerInterceptor() {
@@ -305,14 +298,9 @@ public void readRows(
     @Override
     public void mutateRow(
         MutateRowRequest request, StreamObserver<MutateRowResponse> responseObserver) {
-      if (serverRetryDelayStopwatch.isRunning()) {
-        serverTotalRetryDelay.addAndGet(serverRetryDelayStopwatch.elapsed(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS));
-        serverRetryDelayStopwatch.reset();
-      }
       if (rpcCount.get() < 2) {
         responseObserver.onError(new StatusRuntimeException(Status.UNAVAILABLE));
         rpcCount.getAndIncrement();
-        serverRetryDelayStopwatch.start();
         return;
       }
       responseObserver.onNext(MutateRowResponse.getDefaultInstance());