diff --git a/app/decorators/time_decorator.rb b/app/decorators/time_decorator.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7314cda6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/decorators/time_decorator.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+class TimeDecorator < ApplicationDecorator
+  decorates :update
+
+  def abbr
+    h.content_tag "abbr",
+                  {:class => "timeago",
+                   :title => iso8601_time} do
+      alps_time_span
+    end
+  end
+
+  def permalink
+    h.content_tag "time",
+                  {:class    => "published",
+                   :pubdate  => "pubdate",
+                   :datetime => iso8601_time} do
+      h.content_tag "a", {:class => "timeago",
+                          :href  => update.url,
+                          :rel   => "bookmark message",
+                          :title => iso8601_time} do
+        alps_time_span
+      end
+    end
+  end
+
+  private
+
+  def alps_time_span
+    h.content_tag "span", {:class => "date-time"} do
+      alps_time
+    end
+  end
+
+  def utc_time
+    update.created_at.getutc
+  end
+
+  def iso8601_time
+    utc_time.iso8601
+  end
+
+  def alps_time
+    utc_time.strftime("%FT%T")
+  end
+end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/views/updates/_detail.haml b/app/views/updates/_detail.haml
index ce74ab9e..4ada26c7 100644
--- a/app/views/updates/_detail.haml
+++ b/app/views/updates/_detail.haml
@@ -12,13 +12,9 @@
             != update.to_html
           .update-date
             - if reply
-              %a.timeago{:href => "/updates/#{update.id}", :title => update.created_at.getutc.iso8601}
-                %span.date-time
-                  = update.created_at.getutc.strftime("%FT%T")
+              = TimeDecorator.decorate(update).permalink
             - else
-              %abbr.timeago{:title => update.created_at.getutc.iso8601}
-                %span.date-time
-                  = update.created_at.getutc.strftime("%FT%T")
+              = TimeDecorator.decorate(update).abbr
 
           .actions
             -unless current_user.nil? or (current_user.author.id == update.author.id)
diff --git a/app/views/updates/_list.html.haml b/app/views/updates/_list.html.haml
index 05037a8a..f237a51c 100644
--- a/app/views/updates/_list.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/updates/_list.html.haml
@@ -19,10 +19,7 @@
             != update.to_html
 
         .info
-          %time.published{:pubdate => "pubdate", :datetime => update.created_at.getutc.iso8601}
-            %a.timeago{:href => update.url, :rel => "bookmark message", :title => update.created_at.getutc.iso8601}
-              %span.date-time
-                = update.created_at.getutc.strftime("%FT%T")
+          = TimeDecorator.decorate(update).permalink
 
         - if !update.referral.nil?
           %span.in-reply
diff --git a/test/decorators/time_decorator_test.rb b/test/decorators/time_decorator_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1ce31ebf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/decorators/time_decorator_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+require_relative '../test_helper'
+
+describe TimeDecorator do
+  include TestHelper
+
+  before do
+    @update = TimeDecorator.decorate(
+                Fabricate(:update,
+                  :created_at => Time.parse("2012-07-04 22:44:11 EDT")
+                )
+              )
+  end
+
+  describe "#abbr" do
+    before do
+      @abbr_html = Nokogiri::HTML.parse(@update.abbr)
+    end
+
+    it "has an abbr element with the correct attributes" do
+      abbr = @abbr_html.at_xpath("//abbr")
+      assert abbr
+      abbr["class"].must_equal("timeago")
+      abbr["title"].must_equal("2012-07-05T02:44:11Z")
+    end
+
+    it "has the ALPS date-time element in the correct format" do
+      span = @abbr_html.at_xpath("//abbr/span")
+      assert span
+      span["class"].must_equal("date-time")
+      span.text.must_equal("2012-07-05T02:44:11")
+    end
+  end
+
+  describe "#permalink" do
+    before do
+      @permalink_html = Nokogiri::HTML.parse(@update.permalink)
+    end
+
+    it "has the time element with the correct attributes" do
+      time_element = @permalink_html.at_xpath("//time")
+      assert time_element
+      time_element["class"].must_equal("published")
+      time_element["pubdate"].must_equal("pubdate")
+      time_element["datetime"].must_equal("2012-07-05T02:44:11Z")
+    end
+
+    it "has a link element for the permalink" do
+      link = @permalink_html.at_xpath("//time/a")
+      assert link
+      link["class"].must_equal("timeago")
+      link["href"].must_equal("/updates/#{@update.id}")
+      link["rel"].must_equal("bookmark message")
+      link["title"].must_equal("2012-07-05T02:44:11Z")
+    end
+
+    it "has the ALPS date-time element in the correct format" do
+      span = @permalink_html.at_xpath("//time/a/span")
+      assert span
+      span["class"].must_equal("date-time")
+      span.text.must_equal("2012-07-05T02:44:11")
+    end
+  end
+end