deno run --watch ./html/index.html build.js produces an error attempting to execute html file

deno-watch-html-run-js.txt

# this is a minimal reproducible example to illustrate how deno is attempting to execute 
# an html file passed in as a value for --watch option
# 
# tested with deno 1.24.3 and 1.32.1 

% mkdir html 
% touch html/index.html 
% echo "<\!doctype html>" >> html/index.html
% touch build.js
% echo "console.log('build running');" >> build.js
% deno run --watch "./html/index.html" -A build.js          
Watcher Process started.
error: The module's source code could not be parsed: Expected ';', '}' or <eof> at file:///Users/misha/Source/test-deno-watch/src/html/index.html:1:11
Watcher Process finished. Restarting on file change...

It’s --watch=filename.txt !!!

that’s the issue above! missing "=" sign.