diff --git a/include/internal/catch_timer.cpp b/include/internal/catch_timer.cpp
index b9ae6887..6786efb0 100644
--- a/include/internal/catch_timer.cpp
+++ b/include/internal/catch_timer.cpp
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 
 #include <chrono>
 
+static const uint64_t nanosecondsInSecond = 1000000000;
+
 namespace Catch {
 
     auto getCurrentNanosecondsSinceEpoch() -> uint64_t {
@@ -20,17 +22,25 @@ namespace Catch {
         uint64_t sum = 0;
         static const uint64_t iterations = 1000000;
 
+        auto startTime = getCurrentNanosecondsSinceEpoch();
+
         for( std::size_t i = 0; i < iterations; ++i ) {
 
             uint64_t ticks;
             uint64_t baseTicks = getCurrentNanosecondsSinceEpoch();
             do {
                 ticks = getCurrentNanosecondsSinceEpoch();
-            }
-            while( ticks == baseTicks );
+            } while( ticks == baseTicks );
 
             auto delta = ticks - baseTicks;
             sum += delta;
+
+            // If we have been calibrating for over 3 seconds -- the clock
+            // is terrible and we should move on.
+            // TBD: How to signal that the measured resolution is probably wrong?
+            if (ticks > startTime + 3 * nanosecondsInSecond) {
+                return sum / i;
+            }
         }
 
         // We're just taking the mean, here. To do better we could take the std. dev and exclude outliers