diff --git a/packages/playwright-core/src/utils/time.ts b/packages/playwright-core/src/utils/time.ts
index 9f0aba31a9..d00ee62e82 100644
--- a/packages/playwright-core/src/utils/time.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright-core/src/utils/time.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,19 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
+// The `process.hrtime()` returns a time from some arbitrary
+// date in the past; on certain systems, this is the time from the system boot.
+// The `monotonicTime()` converts this to milliseconds.
+//
+// For a Linux server with uptime of 36 days, the `monotonicTime()` value
+// will be 36 * 86400 * 1000 = 3_110_400_000, which is larger than
+// the maximum value that `setTimeout` accepts as an argument: 2_147_483_647.
+//
+// To make the `monotonicTime()` a reasonable value, we anchor
+// it to the time of the first import of this utility.
+const initialTime = process.hrtime();
+
 export function monotonicTime(): number {
-  const [seconds, nanoseconds] = process.hrtime();
+  const [seconds, nanoseconds] = process.hrtime(initialTime);
   return seconds * 1000 + (nanoseconds / 1000 | 0) / 1000;
 }