diff --git a/api/context/context.go b/api/context/context.go
index 77fa388b..d7df44f2 100644
--- a/api/context/context.go
+++ b/api/context/context.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// Copyright 2015 clair authors
+// Copyright 2017 clair authors
 //
 // Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 // you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/coreos/clair/config"
 	"github.com/coreos/clair/database"
-	"github.com/coreos/clair/utils"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -52,7 +51,10 @@ func HTTPHandler(handler Handler, ctx *RouteContext) httprouter.Handle {
 		if status == 0 {
 			statusStr = "???"
 		}
-		utils.PrometheusObserveTimeMilliseconds(promResponseDurationMilliseconds.WithLabelValues(route, statusStr), start)
+
+		promResponseDurationMilliseconds.
+			WithLabelValues(route, statusStr).
+			Observe(float64(time.Since(start).Nanoseconds()) / float64(time.Millisecond))
 
 		log.Infof("%s \"%s %s\" %s (%s)", r.RemoteAddr, r.Method, r.RequestURI, statusStr, time.Since(start))
 	}
diff --git a/database/pgsql/pgsql.go b/database/pgsql/pgsql.go
index f1d8d7d6..4abd29ee 100644
--- a/database/pgsql/pgsql.go
+++ b/database/pgsql/pgsql.go
@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/coreos/clair/database"
 	"github.com/coreos/clair/database/pgsql/migrations"
 	"github.com/coreos/clair/pkg/commonerr"
-	"github.com/coreos/clair/utils"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -300,5 +299,7 @@ func isErrUniqueViolation(err error) bool {
 }
 
 func observeQueryTime(query, subquery string, start time.Time) {
-	utils.PrometheusObserveTimeMilliseconds(promQueryDurationMilliseconds.WithLabelValues(query, subquery), start)
+	promQueryDurationMilliseconds.
+		WithLabelValues(query, subquery).
+		Observe(float64(time.Since(start).Nanoseconds()) / float64(time.Millisecond))
 }
diff --git a/notifier/notifier.go b/notifier/notifier.go
index fa80482d..ad3619fa 100644
--- a/notifier/notifier.go
+++ b/notifier/notifier.go
@@ -96,8 +96,9 @@ func Run(config *config.NotifierConfig, datastore database.Datastore, stopper *u
 		go func() {
 			success, interrupted := handleTask(*notification, stopper, config.Attempts)
 			if success {
-				utils.PrometheusObserveTimeMilliseconds(promNotifierLatencyMilliseconds, notification.Created)
 				datastore.SetNotificationNotified(notification.Name)
+
+				promNotifierLatencyMilliseconds.Observe(float64(time.Since(notification.Created).Nanoseconds()) / float64(time.Millisecond))
 			}
 			if interrupted {
 				running = false
diff --git a/utils/prometheus.go b/utils/prometheus.go
deleted file mode 100644
index decd1a9e..00000000
--- a/utils/prometheus.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-package utils
-
-import (
-	"time"
-
-	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
-)
-
-// PrometheusObserveTimeMilliseconds observes the elapsed time since start, in milliseconds,
-// on the specified Prometheus Histogram.
-func PrometheusObserveTimeMilliseconds(h prometheus.Histogram, start time.Time) {
-	h.Observe(float64(time.Since(start).Nanoseconds()) / float64(time.Millisecond))
-}