diff --git a/intern/ghost/intern/GHOST_SystemX11.cc b/intern/ghost/intern/GHOST_SystemX11.cc
index b6917d028ae..a3a55983de0 100644
--- a/intern/ghost/intern/GHOST_SystemX11.cc
+++ b/intern/ghost/intern/GHOST_SystemX11.cc
@@ -106,7 +106,6 @@ using namespace std;
 GHOST_SystemX11::GHOST_SystemX11()
     : GHOST_System(),
       m_xkb_descr(nullptr),
-      m_start_time(0),
       m_keyboard_vector{0},
 #ifdef WITH_X11_XINPUT
       m_last_key_time(0),
@@ -175,14 +174,6 @@ GHOST_SystemX11::GHOST_SystemX11()
   m_last_release_keycode = 0;
   m_last_release_time = 0;
 
-  {
-    timespec ts = {0, 0};
-    if (clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &ts) != 0) {
-      GHOST_ASSERT(false, "Could not instantiate monotonic timer!");
-    }
-    m_start_time = (uint64_t(ts.tv_sec) * 1000) + uint64_t(ts.tv_nsec / 1000000);
-  }
-
   /* Use detectable auto-repeat, mac and windows also do this. */
   int use_xkb;
   int xkb_opcode, xkb_event, xkb_error;
@@ -278,8 +269,7 @@ uint64_t GHOST_SystemX11::getMilliSeconds() const
   }
   /* Taking care not to overflow the tv.tv_sec * 1000 */
   const uint64_t time = (uint64_t(ts.tv_sec) * 1000) + uint64_t(ts.tv_nsec / 1000000);
-  GHOST_ASSERT(m_start_time <= time, "Monotonic time unexpectedly went backwards!");
-  return time - m_start_time;
+  return time;
 }
 
 uint64_t GHOST_SystemX11::ms_from_input_time(Time timestamp) const