diff --git a/etemplate/inc/class.etemplate_widget_date.inc.php b/etemplate/inc/class.etemplate_widget_date.inc.php
index 97fc0c7a80..4194631f30 100644
--- a/etemplate/inc/class.etemplate_widget_date.inc.php
+++ b/etemplate/inc/class.etemplate_widget_date.inc.php
@@ -62,17 +62,17 @@ class etemplate_widget_date extends etemplate_widget_transformer
 
 		$form_name = self::form_name($cname, $this->id);
 		$value =& self::get_array(self::$request->content, $form_name, false, true);
-		
+
 		if($this->type != 'date-duration' && $value)
 		{
 			// string with formatting letters like for php's date() method
 			if ($this->attrs['dataformat'] && !is_numeric($value))
 			{
-				$date = date_create_from_format($this->attrs['dataformat'], $value, new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
+				$date = date_create_from_format($this->attrs['dataformat'], $value, egw_time::$user_timezone);
 			}
 			else
 			{
-				$date = new egw_time((int)$value, new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
+				$date = new egw_time($value);
 			}
 			if($this->type == 'date-timeonly')
 			{
@@ -80,9 +80,8 @@ class etemplate_widget_date extends etemplate_widget_transformer
 			}
 			if($date)
 			{
-				// Set timezone to UTC so javascript doesn't add/subtract anything
-				$date->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
-				$value = $date->format(egw_time::W3C);
+				// postfix date-string with "Z" so javascript doesn't add/subtract anything
+				$value = $date->format('Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z');
 			}
 		}
 	}
@@ -109,7 +108,7 @@ class etemplate_widget_date extends etemplate_widget_transformer
 		{
 			$value = self::get_array($content, $form_name);
 			$valid =& self::get_array($validated, $form_name, true);
-			
+
 			if ((string)$value === '' && $this->attrs['needed'])
 			{
 				self::set_validation_error($form_name,lang('Field must not be empty !!!'));
diff --git a/etemplate/js/et2_widget_date.js b/etemplate/js/et2_widget_date.js
index 273f9055d0..43a0df8884 100644
--- a/etemplate/js/et2_widget_date.js
+++ b/etemplate/js/et2_widget_date.js
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ var et2_date = et2_inputWidget.extend(
 	 *
 	 * You can use set_value to set a timestamp.
 	 *
-	 * @return {number|null} timestamp (seconds since 1970-01-01
+	 * @return {number|null} timestamp (seconds since 1970-01-01)
 	 */
 	get_time: function()
 	{
@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ var et2_date = et2_inputWidget.extend(
 
 		// Convert to timestamp - no seconds
 		this.date.setSeconds(0,0);
-		return this.date.toJSON();
+		return this.date.toJSON().replace(/\.\d{3}Z$/, 'Z');
 	}
 });
 et2_register_widget(et2_date, ["date", "date-time", "date-timeonly"]);