diff --git a/app/models/user_preference.rb b/app/models/user_preference.rb
index ed6de22..b2d336a 100644
--- a/app/models/user_preference.rb
+++ b/app/models/user_preference.rb
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ class UserPreference < ActiveRecord::Base
     if new_record? && !(attributes && attributes.key?(:hide_mail))
       self.hide_mail = Setting.default_users_hide_mail?
     end
+    if new_record? && !(attributes && attributes.key?(:time_zone))
+      self.time_zone = Setting.default_users_time_zone
+    end
     if new_record? && !(attributes && attributes.key?(:no_self_notified))
       self.no_self_notified = true
     end
diff --git a/app/views/settings/_authentication.html.erb b/app/views/settings/_authentication.html.erb
index 1536781..fd3c65c 100644
--- a/app/views/settings/_authentication.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/settings/_authentication.html.erb
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@
 
   <div class="tabular settings">
     <p><%= setting_check_box :default_users_hide_mail, :label => :field_hide_mail %></p>
+
+    <p><%= setting_select :default_users_time_zone, ActiveSupport::TimeZone.all.collect {|z| [ z.to_s, z.name ]}, :label => :field_time_zone, :blank => :label_none %></p>
   </div>
 </fieldset>
 
diff --git a/config/settings.yml b/config/settings.yml
index c44da32..bf577de 100644
--- a/config/settings.yml
+++ b/config/settings.yml
@@ -236,6 +236,8 @@ sequential_project_identifiers:
 # multiple values accepted, comma separated
 default_users_hide_mail:
   default: 1
+default_users_time_zone:
+  default: ""
 repositories_encodings:
   default: ''
 # encoding used to convert commit logs to UTF-8
diff --git a/test/unit/user_preference_test.rb b/test/unit/user_preference_test.rb
index 7303d17..bbf5f70 100644
--- a/test/unit/user_preference_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/user_preference_test.rb
@@ -32,6 +32,13 @@ class UserPreferenceTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase
     end
   end
 
+  def test_time_zone_should_default_to_setting
+    with_settings :default_users_time_zone => 'Paris' do
+      preference = UserPreference.new
+      assert_equal 'Paris', preference.time_zone
+    end
+  end
+
   def test_no_self_notified_should_default_to_true
     preference = UserPreference.new
     assert_equal true, preference.no_self_notified