diff --git a/hggit/git_handler.py b/hggit/git_handler.py
index 3df79ea43104f402945f31c037ddb21d976fd850_aGdnaXQvZ2l0X2hhbmRsZXIucHk=..d86c8936b66717d38a265f2febd6992722d7a6bc_aGdnaXQvZ2l0X2hhbmRsZXIucHk= 100644
--- a/hggit/git_handler.py
+++ b/hggit/git_handler.py
@@ -566,7 +566,7 @@
                 # fixup timezone
                 (name, timestamp, timezone) = extra[b'committer'].rsplit(b' ', 2)
                 commit.committer = name
-                commit.commit_time = timestamp
+                commit.commit_time = int(timestamp)
 
                 # work around a timezone format change
                 if int(timezone) % 60 != 0:  # pragma: no cover