diff --git a/hw/timer/nrf51_timer.c b/hw/timer/nrf51_timer.c
index 42be79c736..50c6772383 100644
--- a/hw/timer/nrf51_timer.c
+++ b/hw/timer/nrf51_timer.c
@@ -45,7 +45,12 @@ static uint32_t update_counter(NRF51TimerState *s, int64_t now)
     uint32_t ticks = ns_to_ticks(s, now - s->update_counter_ns);
 
     s->counter = (s->counter + ticks) % BIT(bitwidths[s->bitmode]);
-    s->update_counter_ns = now;
+    /*
+     * Only advance the sync time to the timestamp of the last tick,
+     * not all the way to 'now', so we don't lose time if we do
+     * multiple resyncs in a single tick.
+     */
+    s->update_counter_ns += ticks_to_ns(s, ticks);
     return ticks;
 }