diff --git a/lib/Site/HWClock.pm b/lib/Site/HWClock.pm
index 4fcaf4fe1856c88ee87479c608965633ed70dd7d..f96febe67c64b232108b409f95035b5a19729c72 100644
--- a/lib/Site/HWClock.pm
+++ b/lib/Site/HWClock.pm
@@ -50,7 +50,11 @@ sub handler {
     my $self = shift;
     my $config = $self->{'config'};
     my $now = Time::HiRes::time();
-    my $rtc = qx(date +%s.%N -d "`hwclock -r`");
+    my $hwstring = `hwclock -r`;
+    chomp $hwstring;
+    $hwstring  =~ s/seconds *$//;
+    $hwstring  =~ s/ *-?[0-9]*\.[0-9]* *$//;
+    my $rtc = qx(date +%s.%N -d "$hwstring");
     chomp $rtc;
 
     return {