diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index 2242d8cbb..117c14565 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 - Self Test: Skip self-test for mode 8900 user-configurable scrypt settings are incompatible to fixed settings in the self-test hash
 - Self Test: Skip self-test for mode 15700 because settings are too high and create a too long startup time
 - Terminal: Send clear line code to the same output stream as the next message following
+- Timer: Switch from gettimeofday() to clock_gettime() to workaround problems on cygwin
 
 * changes v4.0.0 -> v4.0.1:
 
diff --git a/include/types.h b/include/types.h
index 5cc47137a..b13a3d4cc 100644
--- a/include/types.h
+++ b/include/types.h
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ typedef time_t            hc_time_t;
 #if defined (_WIN)
 typedef LARGE_INTEGER     hc_timer_t;
 #else
-typedef struct timeval    hc_timer_t;
+typedef struct timespec   hc_timer_t;
 #endif
 
 // thread
diff --git a/src/timer.c b/src/timer.c
index c3511d079..01aa86e10 100644
--- a/src/timer.c
+++ b/src/timer.c
@@ -24,14 +24,16 @@ inline double hc_timer_get (hc_timer_t a)
 
   hc_timer_set (&hr_tmp);
 
-  return (double) ((double) (hr_tmp.QuadPart - a.QuadPart) / (double) (hr_freq.QuadPart / 1000));
+  double r = ((double) hr_tmp.QuadPart - (double) a.QuadPart) / ((double) hr_freq.QuadPart / 1000);
+
+  return r;
 }
 
 #else
 
 inline void hc_timer_set (hc_timer_t* a)
 {
-  gettimeofday (a, NULL);
+  clock_gettime (CLOCK_MONOTONIC, a);
 }
 
 inline double hc_timer_get (hc_timer_t a)
@@ -40,7 +42,20 @@ inline double hc_timer_get (hc_timer_t a)
 
   hc_timer_set (&hr_tmp);
 
-  return (double) (((hr_tmp.tv_sec - (a).tv_sec) * 1000) + ((double) (hr_tmp.tv_usec - (a).tv_usec) / 1000));
+  hc_timer_t s;
+
+  s.tv_sec  = hr_tmp.tv_sec  - a.tv_sec;
+  s.tv_nsec = hr_tmp.tv_nsec - a.tv_nsec;
+
+  if (s.tv_nsec < 0)
+  {
+    s.tv_sec  -= 1;
+    s.tv_nsec += 1000000000;
+  }
+
+  double r = ((double) s.tv_sec * 1000) + ((double) s.tv_nsec / 1000000);
+
+  return r;
 }
 
 #endif