When I set git-gutter:set-start-revision to HEAD~1 to display the modifications introduced by the last commit, the icons showing line differences relative to HEAD~1 disappear after the interval specified by git-gutter:update-interval, provided that the interval is not zero.
Perhaps the function defsubst git-gutter:start-raw-diff-process (proc-buf original now) should include a check for the start-rev parameter to address this behavior.