diff --git a/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/DDBaseSpan.java b/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/DDBaseSpan.java
index cd65b1d741..865b0c9e6f 100644
--- a/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/DDBaseSpan.java
+++ b/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/DDBaseSpan.java
@@ -35,18 +35,18 @@ public abstract class DDBaseSpan<S extends BaseSpan> implements BaseSpan<S> {
 
     // record the start time in nano (current milli + nano delta)
     if (timestampMicro == 0L) {
-      this.startTimeMicro = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMicros(System.currentTimeMillis());
+      this.startTimeMicro = Clock.currentMicroTime();
     } else {
       this.startTimeMicro = timestampMicro;
     }
-    this.startTimeNano = Clock.nowNanos();
+    this.startTimeNano = Clock.currentNanoTicks();
 
     // track each span of the trace
     this.context.getTrace().add(this);
   }
 
   public final void finish() {
-    this.durationNano = Clock.nowNanos() - startTimeNano;
+    this.durationNano = Clock.currentNanoTicks() - startTimeNano;
     afterFinish();
   }
 
diff --git a/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/DDTracer.java b/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/DDTracer.java
index 4fa24d8e06..31c6fae984 100644
--- a/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/DDTracer.java
+++ b/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/DDTracer.java
@@ -14,12 +14,7 @@ import io.opentracing.BaseSpan;
 import io.opentracing.SpanContext;
 import io.opentracing.propagation.Format;
 import io.opentracing.util.ThreadLocalActiveSpanSource;
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.Collections;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Map;
-import java.util.Queue;
+import java.util.*;
 import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
 
 /** DDTracer makes it easy to send traces and span to DD using the OpenTracing integration. */
@@ -290,7 +285,7 @@ public class DDTracer extends ThreadLocalActiveSpanSource implements io.opentrac
     }
 
     private long generateNewId() {
-      return Clock.nowNanos();
+      return Clock.currentNanoTicks();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/util/Clock.java b/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/util/Clock.java
index 3781763ea3..ba50458bab 100644
--- a/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/util/Clock.java
+++ b/dd-trace/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/trace/util/Clock.java
@@ -1,8 +1,14 @@
 package com.datadoghq.trace.util;
 
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+
 public class Clock {
 
-  public static synchronized long nowNanos() {
+  public static synchronized long currentNanoTicks() {
     return System.nanoTime();
   }
+
+  public static synchronized long currentMicroTime() {
+    return TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMicros(System.currentTimeMillis());
+  }
 }