diff --git a/util/TimeUtil.hpp b/util/TimeUtil.hpp
index 15f3a7ebe..232867508 100644
--- a/util/TimeUtil.hpp
+++ b/util/TimeUtil.hpp
@@ -1,13 +1,22 @@
 #pragma once
-#include <sys/time.h>
 #include "util/Types.hpp"
+#include <sys/time.h>
+
+#ifdef MONOTONIC_CLOCK
+#include <time.h>
+#endif
 
-namespace TimeUtil
+namespace TimeUtil {
+static u64 utime()
 {
-    static u64 utime()
-    {
-        struct timeval tv;
-        gettimeofday(&tv, NULL);
-        return (u64)tv.tv_sec * 1000000 + tv.tv_usec;
-    }
+#ifdef MONOTONIC_CLOCK
+    struct timespec ts;
+    clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW, &ts); // or CLOCK_MONOTONIC
+    return (uint64_t)ts.tv_sec * 1000000ULL + ts.tv_nsec / 1000ULL;
+#else
+    struct timeval tv;
+    gettimeofday(&tv, NULL);
+    return (u64)tv.tv_sec * 1000000 + tv.tv_usec;
+#endif
 }
+} // namespace TimeUtil
diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 1c97d910b..31df5ddba 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -66,6 +66,13 @@ def add_zcm_configure_options(ctx):
                   choices=['true', 'false'],
                   help='Include the zcmtype name in the hash generation')
 
+    # RRR (Jakob H.): Shouldn't this default to false so that the previous default behavior
+    #                 is preserved?
+    gr.add_option('--monotonic-clock', dest='monotonic_clock', default='true',
+                  choices=['true', 'false'],
+                  help='Instead of using the system clock, use a clock source that is guaranteed '
+                       'to be monotonic for all utimes internally')
+
     add_use_option('dev',         'Enable all dev tools')
     add_use_option('build-cache', 'Enable the build cache for faster rebuilds')
     add_use_option('clang',       'Enable build using clang sanitizers')
@@ -179,6 +186,8 @@ def process_zcm_configure_options(ctx):
     env.HASH_TYPENAME      = getattr(opt, 'hash_typename')
     env.HASH_MEMBER_NAMES  = getattr(opt, 'hash_member_names')
 
+    env.MONOTONIC_CLOCK = getattr(opt, 'monotonic_clock')
+
     env.USING_CACHE            = hasoptDev('use_build_cache') and attempt_use_cache(ctx)
     env.USING_CLANG            = hasoptDev('use_clang') and attempt_use_clang(ctx)
     env.USING_CXXTEST          = hasoptDev('use_cxxtest') and attempt_use_cxxtest(ctx)
@@ -228,6 +237,7 @@ def process_zcm_configure_options(ctx):
     Logs.pprint('BLUE', '\nType Configuration:')
     print_entry("hash-typename",     env.HASH_TYPENAME == 'true')
     print_entry("hash-member-names", env.HASH_MEMBER_NAMES == 'true', True)
+    print_entry("monotonic-clock",   env.MONOTONIC_CLOCK == 'true', True)
 
     Logs.pprint('BLUE', '\nDev Configuration:')
     print_entry("Build Cache",             env.USING_CACHE)
@@ -420,6 +430,9 @@ def setup_environment(ctx):
     if ctx.env.HASH_MEMBER_NAMES == 'true':
         ctx.env.DEFINES_default.append("ENABLE_MEMBERNAME_HASHING")
 
+    if ctx.env.MONOTONIC_CLOCK == 'true':
+        ctx.env.DEFINES_default.append("MONOTONIC_CLOCK")
+
     if ctx.env.TRACK_TRAFFIC_TOPOLOGY == 'true':
         ctx.env.DEFINES_default.append("TRACK_TRAFFIC_TOPOLOGY")