diff --git a/scripts/ci-lite/test_js.sh b/scripts/ci-lite/test_js.sh
index dfe3c2fb42..28db6b4a93 100755
--- a/scripts/ci-lite/test_js.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci-lite/test_js.sh
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ echo 'travis_fold:end:test.node'
 echo 'travis_fold:start:test.localChrome'
 
 # rebuild since codegen has overwritten some files.
-$(npm bin)/tsc -p modules/tsconfig.json
+$(npm bin)/ng2tc -p modules/tsconfig.json
 
 # Run unit tests in local chrome
 if [[ ${TRAVIS} ]]; then
diff --git a/tools/tsc-watch/tsc_watch.ts b/tools/tsc-watch/tsc_watch.ts
index e64f5a77f6..80b519d653 100644
--- a/tools/tsc-watch/tsc_watch.ts
+++ b/tools/tsc-watch/tsc_watch.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ enum State {
 }
 
 export const TSC = 'node_modules/typescript/bin/tsc';
+export const NG2TC = 'node_modules/.bin/ng2tc';
 export type Command = (stdIn, stdErr) => Promise<number>;
 
 export class TscWatch {
@@ -39,7 +40,10 @@ export class TscWatch {
   }
 
   watch() {
-    var args = [TSC, '--project', this.tsconfig];
+    // TODO(tbosch): We don't support ng2tc in watch mode yet,
+    // so we fall back to plain tsc. However, we don't use
+    // the preprocessing of tsickle regarding decorators...
+    var args = [this.runOnce ? NG2TC : TSC, '--project', this.tsconfig];
     if (!this.runOnce) args.push('--watch');
     var tsc =
         this.runCmd(args, {}, (d) => this.consumeLine(d, false), (d) => this.consumeLine(d, true));