diff --git a/docs/content/docs.md b/docs/content/docs.md
index 941c9c842..22e8c8c93 100644
--- a/docs/content/docs.md
+++ b/docs/content/docs.md
@@ -992,6 +992,18 @@ Mode to run dedupe command in.  One of `interactive`, `skip`, `first`,
 `newest`, `oldest`, `rename`.  The default is `interactive`.  
 See the dedupe command for more information as to what these options mean.
 
+### --default-time TIME ###
+
+If a file or directory does have a modification time rclone can read
+then rclone will display this fixed time instead.
+
+The default is `2000-01-01 00:00:00 UTC`. This can be configured in
+any of the ways shown in [the time or duration options](#time-option).
+
+For example `--default-time 2020-06-01` to set the default time to the
+1st of June 2020 or `--default-time 0s` to set the default time to the
+time rclone started up.
+
 ### --disable FEATURE,FEATURE,... ###
 
 This disables a comma separated list of optional features. For example
diff --git a/fs/config.go b/fs/config.go
index 4049b6ea4..d243d794a 100644
--- a/fs/config.go
+++ b/fs/config.go
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@ type ConfigInfo struct {
 	Metadata                bool
 	ServerSideAcrossConfigs bool
 	TerminalColorMode       TerminalColorMode
+	DefaultTime             Time // time that directories with no time should display
 }
 
 // NewConfig creates a new config with everything set to the default
@@ -185,6 +186,7 @@ func NewConfig() *ConfigInfo {
 	c.FsCacheExpireDuration = 300 * time.Second
 	c.FsCacheExpireInterval = 60 * time.Second
 	c.KvLockTime = 1 * time.Second
+	c.DefaultTime = Time(time.Date(2000, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC))
 
 	// Perform a simple check for debug flags to enable debug logging during the flag initialization
 	for argIndex, arg := range os.Args {
diff --git a/fs/config/configflags/configflags.go b/fs/config/configflags/configflags.go
index 96d728fcc..63f107fd0 100644
--- a/fs/config/configflags/configflags.go
+++ b/fs/config/configflags/configflags.go
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@ func AddFlags(ci *fs.ConfigInfo, flagSet *pflag.FlagSet) {
 	flags.BoolVarP(flagSet, &ci.Metadata, "metadata", "M", ci.Metadata, "If set, preserve metadata when copying objects")
 	flags.BoolVarP(flagSet, &ci.ServerSideAcrossConfigs, "server-side-across-configs", "", ci.ServerSideAcrossConfigs, "Allow server-side operations (e.g. copy) to work across different configs")
 	flags.FVarP(flagSet, &ci.TerminalColorMode, "color", "", "When to show colors (and other ANSI codes) AUTO|NEVER|ALWAYS")
+	flags.FVarP(flagSet, &ci.DefaultTime, "default-time", "", "Time to show if modtime is unknown for files and directories")
 }
 
 // ParseHeaders converts the strings passed in via the header flags into HTTPOptions
diff --git a/fs/dir.go b/fs/dir.go
index 63c51a310..c55bcea23 100644
--- a/fs/dir.go
+++ b/fs/dir.go
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ type Dir struct {
 }
 
 // NewDir creates an unspecialized Directory object
+//
+// If the modTime is unknown pass in time.Time{}
 func NewDir(remote string, modTime time.Time) *Dir {
 	return &Dir{
 		remote:  remote,
@@ -75,12 +77,14 @@ func (d *Dir) SetParentID(parent string) *Dir {
 }
 
 // ModTime returns the modification date of the file
-// It should return a best guess if one isn't available
+//
+// If one isn't available it returns the configured --default-dir-time
 func (d *Dir) ModTime(ctx context.Context) time.Time {
 	if !d.modTime.IsZero() {
 		return d.modTime
 	}
-	return time.Now()
+	ci := GetConfig(ctx)
+	return time.Time(ci.DefaultTime)
 }
 
 // Size returns the size of the file