diff --git a/configuration/options.nix b/configuration/options.nix
index ead48d030aa1..d128f6c8e331 100644
--- a/configuration/options.nix
+++ b/configuration/options.nix
@@ -239,6 +239,29 @@
   }
 
   
+  {
+    name = ["services" "ntp" "enable"];
+    default = true;
+    description = "
+      Whether to synchronise your machine's time using the NTP
+      protocol.
+    ";
+  }
+
+  
+  {
+    name = ["services" "ntp" "servers"];
+    default = [
+      "0.pool.ntp.org"
+      "1.pool.ntp.org"
+      "2.pool.ntp.org"
+    ];
+    description = "
+      The set of NTP servers from which to synchronise.
+    ";
+  }
+
+  
   {
     name = ["services" "xserver" "enable"];
     default = false;
diff --git a/configuration/upstart.nix b/configuration/upstart.nix
index 4065a0305935..46e6ea3aa6ab 100644
--- a/configuration/upstart.nix
+++ b/configuration/upstart.nix
@@ -81,6 +81,13 @@ import ../upstart-jobs/gather.nix {
       inherit (pkgs) openssh glibc pwdutils;
     })
 
+  # NTP daemon.
+  ++ optional ["services" "ntp" "enable"]
+    (import ../upstart-jobs/ntpd.nix {
+      inherit (pkgs) ntp glibc pwdutils writeText;
+      servers = config.get ["services" "ntp" "servers"];
+    })
+
   # X server.
   ++ optional ["services" "xserver" "enable"]
     (import ../upstart-jobs/xserver.nix {
diff --git a/upstart-jobs/ntpd.nix b/upstart-jobs/ntpd.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a8c90c31fd09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/upstart-jobs/ntpd.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+{ntp, glibc, pwdutils, writeText, servers}:
+
+let
+
+  stateDir = "/var/lib/ntp";
+
+  ntpUser = "ntp";
+
+  config = writeText "ntp.conf" "
+    driftfile ${stateDir}/ntp.drift
+
+    ${toString (map (server: "server " + server + "\n") servers)}
+  ";
+
+in
+
+{
+  name = "ntpd";
+  
+  job = "
+description \"NTP daemon\"
+
+start on network-interfaces/started
+stop on network-interfaces/stop
+
+start script
+
+    if ! ${glibc}/bin/getent passwd ${ntpUser} > /dev/null; then
+        ${pwdutils}/sbin/useradd -g nogroup -d ${stateDir} -s /noshell \\
+            -c 'NTP daemon user' ${ntpUser}
+    fi
+
+    mkdir -m 0755 -p ${stateDir}
+    chown ${ntpUser} ${stateDir}
+
+    date
+    ${ntp}/bin/ntpd -ddd -c ${config} -q -g
+    date
+    
+end script
+
+respawn ${ntp}/bin/ntpd -ddd -n -c ${config}
+  ";
+  
+}