diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 61381319..a86353d2 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
   seconds (configurable with `cli.progress_llm_interval`), plus a final
   line. This is implemented by the new `llm` progress handler.
 
+* The `logger` progress handler and the `pb_timestamp` progress variable now report timestamps in UTC, matching their `+00:00` suffix. Previously they used local time.
+
 * New `cli_extract_vars()` function to extract variable and function names
   from cli format strings without evaluating them (#750, @MichaelChirico).
 
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 7e2cf22a..03f85517 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ is_yes <- function(x) {
 }
 
 format_iso_8601 <- function(p) {
-  format(p, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+00:00")
+  format(p, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+00:00", tz = "UTC")
 }
 
 has_packages <- function(pkgs) {
diff --git a/tests/testthat/_snaps/progress-handler-logger.md b/tests/testthat/_snaps/progress-handler-logger.md
index ad33c982..03b06edc 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/_snaps/progress-handler-logger.md
+++ b/tests/testthat/_snaps/progress-handler-logger.md
@@ -3,5 +3,5 @@
     Code
       logger_out(bar, "updated")
     Output
-      2021-06-10T13:51:05+00:00 id 13/113 updated
+      2021-06-10T11:51:05+00:00 id 13/113 updated
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-progress-handler-logger.R b/tests/testthat/test-progress-handler-logger.R
index 74f378df..f4932d8f 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-progress-handler-logger.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-progress-handler-logger.R
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ test_that("loggerr_out", {
   bar$id <- "id"
   bar$current <- 13
   bar$total <- 113
-  local_mocked_bindings(Sys.time = function() .POSIXct(1623325865, tz = "CET"))
+  local_mocked_bindings(Sys.time = function() {
+    .POSIXct(1623325865, tz = "Europe/Berlin")
+  })
   expect_snapshot(logger_out(bar, "updated"))
 })