We store EPOC timestamps for everything and that's a universal time around the globe. From the second we record a registration the EPOC timestamp must grow by 1296000 seconds to be eligible for the promotion. So yes all relative to server time which is standardized UNIX Time.
Current source check of our time pool.
[~]# chronyc sources -v
.-- Source mode '^' = server, '=' = peer, '#' = local clock.
/ .- Source state '*' = current best, '+' = combined, '-' = not combined,
| / 'x' = may be in error, '~' = too variable, '?' = unusable.
|| .- xxxx [ yyyy ] +/- zzzz
|| Reachability register (octal) -. | xxxx = adjusted offset,
|| Log2(Polling interval) --. | | yyyy = measured offset,
|| \ | | zzzz = estimated error.
|| | | \
MS Name/IP address Stratum Poll Reach LastRx Last sample
===============================================================================
^+ ntp.swyn.net 2 10 373 775 +114us[ +135us] +/- 16ms
^- 172-104-209-204.ip.linod> 4 10 377 335 +2397us[+2397us] +/- 37ms
^* pool-138-89-14-60.mad.ea> 1 10 377 526 -176us[ -155us] +/- 9865us
^- ntp.maxhost.io 2 10 377 516 +1513us[+1513us] +/- 46ms
Track the drift on the server.
[~]# chronyc tracking
Reference ID : 8A590E3C (pool-138-89-14-60.mad.east.verizon.net)
Stratum : 2
Ref time (UTC) : Sat Feb 07 06:19:54 2026
System time : 0.000077809 seconds fast of NTP time
Last offset : +0.000020834 seconds
RMS offset : 0.000047574 seconds
Frequency : 7.378 ppm slow
Residual freq : +0.000 ppm
Skew : 0.013 ppm
Root delay : 0.019030381 seconds
Root dispersion : 0.000573422 seconds
Update interval : 1025.7 seconds
Leap status : Normal
Translate the findings.
System time : 0.000077809 seconds fast of NTP time
Last offset : +0.000020834 seconds
RMS offset : 0.000047574 seconds
Leap status : Normal
In human terms:
System time error: ~78 microseconds
Last correction: ~21 microseconds
Average jitter: ~48 microseconds
In server terms:
under 1 ms = excellent
under 0.1 ms = outstanding
We're currently running at 0.078 ms.
That’s better than many financial systems.