diff --git a/extensions/kubernetes-client/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/kubernetes/client/deployment/KubernetesClientProcessor.java b/extensions/kubernetes-client/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/kubernetes/client/deployment/KubernetesClientProcessor.java
index 21bbe1deec5a8..85ffe58f23b9f 100644
--- a/extensions/kubernetes-client/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/kubernetes/client/deployment/KubernetesClientProcessor.java
+++ b/extensions/kubernetes-client/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/kubernetes/client/deployment/KubernetesClientProcessor.java
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ private void findWatchedClasses(final DotName implementor, final ApplicationInde
                         if (watcherGenericTypes.size() == 1) {
                             watchedClasses.add(watcherGenericTypes.get(0).name());
                         }
-                    } catch (IllegalStateException ignored) {
+                    } catch (IllegalArgumentException ignored) {
                         // when the class has no subclasses and we were not able to determine the generic types, it's likely that
                         // the watcher will fail due to not being able to deserialize the class
                         if (applicationIndex.getIndex().getAllKnownSubclasses(c.name()).isEmpty()) {