diff --git a/openerp/__init__.py b/openerp/__init__.py
index 1db7b616199..02f879c4929 100644
--- a/openerp/__init__.py
+++ b/openerp/__init__.py
@@ -22,6 +22,17 @@
 """ OpenERP core library.
 
 """
+
+# Make sure the OpenERP server runs in UTC. This is especially necessary
+# under Windows as under Linux it seems the real import of time is
+# sufficiently deferred so that setting the TZ environment variable
+# in openerp.cli.server was working.
+import os
+os.environ['TZ'] = 'UTC' # Set the timezone...
+import time              # ... *then* import time.
+del os
+del time
+
 # The hard-coded super-user id (a.k.a. administrator, or root user).
 SUPERUSER_ID = 1
 
diff --git a/openerp/cli/server.py b/openerp/cli/server.py
index fdde56bc912..549b6529aa5 100644
--- a/openerp/cli/server.py
+++ b/openerp/cli/server.py
@@ -219,8 +219,6 @@ def quit_on_signals():
     sys.exit(0)
 
 def main(args):
-    os.environ["TZ"] = "UTC"
-
     check_root_user()
     openerp.tools.config.parse_config(args)