diff --git a/docs/axes/cartesian/time.md b/docs/axes/cartesian/time.md
index bdd4d1b65f4..4f9d14872c1 100644
--- a/docs/axes/cartesian/time.md
+++ b/docs/axes/cartesian/time.md
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ The `ticks.source` property controls the ticks generation.
 
 * `'auto'`: generates "optimal" ticks based on scale size and time options
 * `'data'`: generates ticks from data (including labels from data `{t|x|y}` objects)
-* `'labels'`: generates ticks from user given `data.labels` values ONLY
+* `'labels'`: generates ticks from user given `scale.labels` or `data.labels` values ONLY
 
 ### Parser
 If this property is defined as a string, it is interpreted as a custom format to be used by Moment.js to parse the date.
diff --git a/src/scales/scale.time.js b/src/scales/scale.time.js
index dd202c70f20..656d2f74a13 100644
--- a/src/scales/scale.time.js
+++ b/src/scales/scale.time.js
@@ -524,7 +524,7 @@ module.exports = Scale.extend({
 		var datasets = [];
 		var labels = [];
 		var i, j, ilen, jlen, data, timestamp;
-		var dataLabels = chart.data.labels || [];
+		var dataLabels = options.labels || chart.data.labels || [];
 
 		// Convert labels to timestamps
 		for (i = 0, ilen = dataLabels.length; i < ilen; ++i) {