diff --git a/esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp b/esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp
index 566344fa88..4e623942ac 100644
--- a/esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp
@@ -88,16 +88,16 @@ void RealTimeClock::synchronize_epoch_(uint32_t epoch) {
   struct timeval timev {
     .tv_sec = static_cast<time_t>(epoch), .tv_usec = 0,
   };
+#ifdef USE_ESP8266
+  // ESP8266 settimeofday() requires tz to be nullptr
+  int ret = settimeofday(&timev, nullptr);
+#else
   struct timezone tz = {0, 0};
   int ret = settimeofday(&timev, &tz);
-  if (ret != 0 && errno == EINVAL) {
-    // Some ESP8266 frameworks abort when timezone parameter is not NULL
-    // while ESP32 expects it not to be NULL
-    ret = settimeofday(&timev, nullptr);
-  }
+#endif
 
   if (ret != 0) {
-    ESP_LOGW(TAG, "setimeofday() failed with code %d", ret);
+    ESP_LOGW(TAG, "settimeofday() failed with code %d", ret);
   }
 #endif
   auto time = this->now();