diff --git a/drivers/rtc/class.c b/drivers/rtc/class.c
index 9458e6d..7c88d19 100644
--- a/drivers/rtc/class.c
+++ b/drivers/rtc/class.c
@@ -34,6 +34,50 @@
 #ifdef CONFIG_RTC_HCTOSYS_DEVICE
 /* Result of the last RTC to system clock attempt. */
 int rtc_hctosys_ret = -ENODEV;
+
+/* IMPORTANT: the RTC only stores whole seconds. It is arbitrary
+ * whether it stores the most close value or the value with partial
+ * seconds truncated. However, it is important that we use it to store
+ * the truncated value. This is because otherwise it is necessary,
+ * in an rtc sync function, to read both xtime.tv_sec and
+ * xtime.tv_nsec. On some processors (i.e. ARM), an atomic read
+ * of >32bits is not possible. So storing the most close value would
+ * slow down the sync API. So here we have the truncated value and
+ * the best guess is to add 0.5s.
+ */
+
+static void rtc_hctosys(struct rtc_device *rtc)
+{
+	int err;
+	struct rtc_time tm;
+	struct timespec64 tv64 = {
+		.tv_nsec = NSEC_PER_SEC >> 1,
+	};
+
+	err = rtc_read_time(rtc, &tm);
+	if (err) {
+		dev_err(rtc->dev.parent,
+			"hctosys: unable to read the hardware clock\n");
+		goto err_read;
+	}
+
+	tv64.tv_sec = rtc_tm_to_time64(&tm);
+
+#if BITS_PER_LONG == 32
+	if (tv64.tv_sec > INT_MAX) {
+		err = -ERANGE;
+		goto err_read;
+	}
+#endif
+
+	err = do_settimeofday64(&tv64);
+
+	dev_info(rtc->dev.parent, "setting system clock to %ptR UTC (%lld)\n",
+		 &tm, (long long)tv64.tv_sec);
+
+err_read:
+	rtc_hctosys_ret = err;
+}
 #endif
 
 #if defined(CONFIG_PM_SLEEP) && defined(CONFIG_RTC_HCTOSYS_DEVICE)
@@ -375,6 +419,11 @@
 	dev_info(rtc->dev.parent, "registered as %s\n",
 		 dev_name(&rtc->dev));
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_RTC_HCTOSYS_DEVICE
+	if (!strcmp(dev_name(&rtc->dev), CONFIG_RTC_HCTOSYS_DEVICE))
+		rtc_hctosys(rtc);
+#endif
+
 	return 0;
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(__rtc_register_device);