diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 086bb0ef06..5c858c5634 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
-## v0.5.0 - 2019-09-?? (currently in beta pre-release)
+## v0.5.0 - 2019-??-?? (currently in beta pre-release)
 
 ### Added
 
@@ -45,7 +45,9 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
   Cargo features are enabled.
 
 - [breaking-change][] the monotonic timer used to implement the `schedule` API
-  is now user configurable via the `#[app(monotonic = ..)]` argument.
+  is now user configurable via the `#[app(monotonic = ..)]` argument. IMPORTANT:
+  it is now the responsibility of the application author to configure and
+  initialize the chosen `monotonic` timer during the `#[init]` phase.
 
 - [breaking-change][] the `peripherals` field is not include in `init::Context`
   by default. One must opt-in using the `#[app(peripherals = ..)]` argument.
diff --git a/book/en/src/by-example/timer-queue.md b/book/en/src/by-example/timer-queue.md
index 7c8be382e8..fb41512d10 100644
--- a/book/en/src/by-example/timer-queue.md
+++ b/book/en/src/by-example/timer-queue.md
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ first appear in the `schedule` argument of the context attribute. When
 scheduling a task the (user-defined) `Instant` at which the task should be
 executed must be passed as the first argument of the `schedule` invocation.
 
+Additionally, the chosen `monotonic` timer must be configured and initialized
+during the `#[init]** phase. Note that this is *also* the case if you choose to
+use the `CYCCNT` provided by the `cortex-m-rtfm` crate.
+
 The example below schedules two tasks from `init`: `foo` and `bar`. `foo` is
 scheduled to run 8 million clock cycles in the future. Next, `bar` is scheduled
 to run 4 million clock cycles in the future. Thus `bar` runs before `foo` since
diff --git a/examples/baseline.rs b/examples/baseline.rs
index b7144dd188..df0ff9a408 100644
--- a/examples/baseline.rs
+++ b/examples/baseline.rs
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ use panic_semihosting as _;
 const APP: () = {
     #[init(spawn = [foo])]
     fn init(cx: init::Context) {
+        // omitted: initialization of `CYCCNT`
+
         hprintln!("init(baseline = {:?})", cx.start).unwrap();
 
         // `foo` inherits the baseline of `init`: `Instant(0)`
diff --git a/examples/periodic.rs b/examples/periodic.rs
index ec110e1181..dca0ad565b 100644
--- a/examples/periodic.rs
+++ b/examples/periodic.rs
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ const PERIOD: u32 = 8_000_000;
 const APP: () = {
     #[init(schedule = [foo])]
     fn init(cx: init::Context) {
+        // omitted: initialization of `CYCCNT`
+
         cx.schedule.foo(Instant::now() + PERIOD.cycles()).unwrap();
     }
 
diff --git a/examples/schedule.rs b/examples/schedule.rs
index 27d3bd1f59..97818e36a1 100644
--- a/examples/schedule.rs
+++ b/examples/schedule.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 //! examples/schedule.rs
 
-#![deny(unsafe_code)]
 #![deny(warnings)]
 #![no_main]
 #![no_std]
@@ -13,8 +12,15 @@ use rtfm::cyccnt::{Instant, U32Ext as _};
 #[rtfm::app(device = lm3s6965, monotonic = rtfm::cyccnt::CYCCNT)]
 const APP: () = {
     #[init(schedule = [foo, bar])]
-    fn init(cx: init::Context) {
-        let now = Instant::now();
+    fn init(mut cx: init::Context) {
+        // Initialize (enable) the monotonic timer (CYCCNT)
+        cx.core.DCB.enable_trace();
+        // required on devices that software lock the DWT (e.g. STM32F7)
+        unsafe { cx.core.DWT.lar.write(0xC5ACCE55) }
+        cx.core.DWT.enable_cycle_counter();
+
+        // semantically, the monotonic timer is frozen at time "zero" during `init`
+        let now = cx.start; // the start time of the system
 
         hprintln!("init @ {:?}", now).unwrap();
 
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 959c9b7bc6..d661c54f67 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -138,9 +138,21 @@ pub trait Monotonic {
     fn ratio() -> Fraction;
 
     /// Returns the current time
+    ///
+    /// # Correctness
+    ///
+    /// This function is *allowed* to return nonsensical values if called before `reset` is invoked
+    /// by the runtime. Therefore application authors should *not* call this function during the
+    /// `#[init]` phase.
     fn now() -> Self::Instant;
 
     /// Resets the counter to *zero*
+    ///
+    /// # Safety
+    ///
+    /// This function will be called *exactly once* by the RTFM runtime after `#[init]` returns and
+    /// before tasks can start; this is also the case in multi-core applications. User code must
+    /// *never* call this function.
     unsafe fn reset();
 
     /// A `Self::Instant` that represents a count of *zero*