diff --git a/docs/doxygen/overviews/envvars.h b/docs/doxygen/overviews/envvars.h
index b03483f76b..051f1dfec3 100644
--- a/docs/doxygen/overviews/envvars.h
+++ b/docs/doxygen/overviews/envvars.h
@@ -13,6 +13,14 @@ This section describes all environment variables that affect execution of
 wxWidgets programs.
 
 @beginDefList
+@itemdef{WXLOG_TIME_FORMAT,
+         If set, the contents of this variable is set as the initial timestamp
+         used for logging, i.e. passed to wxLog::SetTimestamp(), on program
+         startup. For example, this can be used to enable milliseconds in the
+         timestamps by setting `WXLOG_TIME_FORMAT=%H:%M:%S.%l` or it could also
+         be used to use ISO 8601 timestamp format instead of the default
+         locale-dependent format. This variable is only used since wxWidgets
+         3.3.0.}
 @itemdef{WXTRACE,
         This variable can be set to a comma-separated list of trace masks used in
         wxLogTrace calls; wxLog::AddTraceMask is called for every mask
diff --git a/interface/wx/log.h b/interface/wx/log.h
index 49b4131abb..b20e154ec6 100644
--- a/interface/wx/log.h
+++ b/interface/wx/log.h
@@ -512,6 +512,11 @@ public:
         formatter and custom formatters may ignore this format. You can also
         define a custom wxLogFormatter to customize the time stamp handling
         beyond changing its format.
+
+        In addition to calling this function explicitly, it can also be called
+        implicitly by wxWidgets if `WXLOG_TIME_FORMAT` environment variable is
+        set, see @ref overview_envvars "overview of the environment variables"
+        affecting wxWidgets programs.
     */
     static void SetTimestamp(const wxString& format);
 
diff --git a/src/common/appbase.cpp b/src/common/appbase.cpp
index e4e15eab5e..406c336ef5 100644
--- a/src/common/appbase.cpp
+++ b/src/common/appbase.cpp
@@ -1240,6 +1240,10 @@ static void LINKAGEMODE SetTraceMasks()
         while ( tkn.HasMoreTokens() )
             wxLog::AddTraceMask(tkn.GetNextToken());
     }
+
+    wxString ts;
+    if ( wxGetEnv("WXLOG_TIME_FORMAT", &ts) )
+        wxLog::SetTimestamp(ts);
 #endif // wxUSE_LOG
 }