diff --git a/bson/bson.go b/bson/bson.go
index f1f9ab747..f283b3a03 100644
--- a/bson/bson.go
+++ b/bson/bson.go
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"math"
 	"os"
 	"reflect"
 	"runtime"
@@ -201,7 +202,6 @@ func readRandomUint32() uint32 {
 	return uint32((uint32(b[0]) << 0) | (uint32(b[1]) << 8) | (uint32(b[2]) << 16) | (uint32(b[3]) << 24))
 }
 
-
 // machineId stores machine id generated once and used in subsequent calls
 // to NewObjectId function.
 var machineId = readMachineId()
@@ -352,6 +352,46 @@ func Now() time.Time {
 // strange reason has its own datatype defined in BSON.
 type MongoTimestamp int64
 
+// Time returns the time part of ts which is stored with second precision.
+func (ts MongoTimestamp) Time() time.Time {
+	return time.Unix(int64(uint64(ts) >> 32), 0)
+}
+
+// Counter returns the counter part of ts.
+func (ts MongoTimestamp) Counter() uint32 {
+	return uint32(ts)
+}
+
+// NewMongoTimestamp creates a timestamp using the given date t with second precision
+// and counter c.
+//
+// Returns -1 and en error if time t is earlier than 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z
+// or later than 2106-02-07T06:28:15Z.
+//
+// Note that two timestamps are not allowed to have the same combination of time and counter,
+// so you have to make sure to increase the counter when creating multiple MongoTimestamps
+// within one second.
+func NewMongoTimestamp(t time.Time, c uint32) (MongoTimestamp, error) {
+	var tv uint32
+
+	u := t.Unix()
+
+	if u < 0 || u > math.MaxUint32 {
+		return -1, errors.New("invalid value for time")
+	} 
+	
+	tv = uint32(u)
+
+	buf := bytes.Buffer{}
+
+	binary.Write(&buf, binary.BigEndian, tv)
+	binary.Write(&buf, binary.BigEndian, c)
+
+	i := int64(binary.BigEndian.Uint64(buf.Bytes()))
+
+	return MongoTimestamp(i), nil
+}
+
 type orderKey int64
 
 // MaxKey is a special value that compares higher than all other possible BSON
diff --git a/bson/bson_test.go b/bson/bson_test.go
index beabbb65e..44d91865d 100644
--- a/bson/bson_test.go
+++ b/bson/bson_test.go
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ import (
 	"encoding/hex"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"math/rand"
 	"net/url"
 	"reflect"
 	"strings"
@@ -1691,3 +1693,50 @@ func (s *S) BenchmarkUnmarshalRaw(c *C) {
 		panic(err)
 	}
 }
+
+func (s *S) TestMongoTimestampTime(c *C) {
+	t := time.Now()
+	ts, err := bson.NewMongoTimestamp(t, 1)
+	c.Assert(err, IsNil)
+	c.Assert(ts.Time().Unix(), Equals, t.Unix())
+}
+
+func (s *S) TestMongoTimestampCounter(c *C) {
+	rnd := rand.Uint32()
+	ts, err := bson.NewMongoTimestamp(time.Now(), rnd)
+	c.Assert(err, IsNil)
+	c.Assert(ts.Counter(), Equals, rnd)
+}
+
+func (s *S) TestMongoTimestampError(c *C) {
+	t := time.Date(1969, time.December, 31, 23, 59, 59, 999, time.UTC)
+	ts, err := bson.NewMongoTimestamp(t, 1)
+	c.Assert(int64(ts), Equals, int64(-1))
+	c.Assert(err, ErrorMatches, "invalid value for time")
+}
+
+func ExampleNewMongoTimestamp() {
+
+	var counter uint32 = 1
+	var t time.Time
+
+	for i := 1; i <= 3; i++ {
+
+		if c := time.Now(); t.Unix() == c.Unix() {
+			counter++
+		} else {
+			t = c
+			counter = 1
+		}
+
+		ts, err := bson.NewMongoTimestamp(time.Now(), counter)
+
+		if err != nil {
+			fmt.Printf("Error occured: %v", err)
+		} else {
+			fmt.Printf("Encoded timestamp: %d\n", ts)
+		}
+
+		time.Sleep(500 * time.Millisecond)
+	}
+}