When handling a UIButton touch, you are given a UIEvent object. The UIEvent object has a timestamp which the Apple documentation states as being "the time that the event was created" (UIEvent Class Reference). In the documentation on the Main Event Loop, it states that: "The application object obtains the topmost object in the event queue, converts it to an event object (UIEvent) ..." Does [UIEvent timestamp] refer to the time at which the UIEvent object is created (i.e. after processing the touch event off of the main run loop and hance not remotely real-time) or does it refer to the time that the underlying touch object was created (and hence as close as possible to representing the actual time of the user touch9?