diff --git a/doc/APIchanges b/doc/APIchanges
index a8b70918af..ad444e11b0 100644
--- a/doc/APIchanges
+++ b/doc/APIchanges
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ libavutil:     2014-08-09
 
 API changes, most recent first:
 
+2014-10-xx - xxxxxxx - lavu 54.5.0 - time.h
+  Add av_gettime_relative().
+
 2014-10-xx - xxxxxxx - lavc 56.5.0 - avcodec.h
   Replace AVCodecContext.time_base used for decoding
   with AVCodecContext.framerate.
diff --git a/libavutil/time.c b/libavutil/time.c
index 42497dad3c..7a3604e651 100644
--- a/libavutil/time.c
+++ b/libavutil/time.c
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@
 #include <time.h>
 #if HAVE_CLOCK_GETTIME
 #include <time.h>
-#elif HAVE_GETTIMEOFDAY
+#endif
+#if HAVE_GETTIMEOFDAY
 #include <sys/time.h>
 #endif
 #if HAVE_UNISTD_H
@@ -38,11 +39,7 @@
 
 int64_t av_gettime(void)
 {
-#if HAVE_CLOCK_GETTIME
-    struct timespec ts;
-    clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &ts);
-    return (int64_t)ts.tv_sec * 1000000 + ts.tv_nsec / 1000;
-#elif HAVE_GETTIMEOFDAY
+#if HAVE_GETTIMEOFDAY
     struct timeval tv;
     gettimeofday(&tv, NULL);
     return (int64_t)tv.tv_sec * 1000000 + tv.tv_usec;
@@ -57,6 +54,17 @@ int64_t av_gettime(void)
 #endif
 }
 
+int64_t av_gettime_relative(void)
+{
+#if HAVE_CLOCK_GETTIME
+    struct timespec ts;
+    clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &ts);
+    return (int64_t)ts.tv_sec * 1000000 + ts.tv_nsec / 1000;
+#else
+    return av_gettime() + 42 * 60 * 60 * INT64_C(1000000);
+#endif
+}
+
 int av_usleep(unsigned usec)
 {
 #if HAVE_NANOSLEEP
diff --git a/libavutil/time.h b/libavutil/time.h
index b01a97d770..463bcfcdcf 100644
--- a/libavutil/time.h
+++ b/libavutil/time.h
@@ -26,6 +26,15 @@
  */
 int64_t av_gettime(void);
 
+/**
+ * Get the current time in microseconds since some unspecified starting point.
+ * On platforms that support it, the time comes from a monotonic clock
+ * This property makes this time source ideal for measuring relative time.
+ * The returned values may not be monotonic on platforms where a monotonic
+ * clock is not available.
+ */
+int64_t av_gettime_relative(void);
+
 /**
  * Sleep for a period of time.  Although the duration is expressed in
  * microseconds, the actual delay may be rounded to the precision of the
diff --git a/libavutil/version.h b/libavutil/version.h
index 8279635a83..b40009e621 100644
--- a/libavutil/version.h
+++ b/libavutil/version.h
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@
  */
 
 #define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MAJOR 54
-#define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MINOR  4
+#define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MINOR  5
 #define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MICRO  0
 
 #define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_INT   AV_VERSION_INT(LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MAJOR, \