An apparatus for tracking a real time clock comprising a delay element for receiving a first clock signal and providing a second delayed clock signal, a quadrature interface including a first input and a second input for respectively receiving the first and second clock signals, control logic adapted to provide a state machine including four states, the four states respectively corresponding to a 2-bit gray code such that a current state is selected by determining a correspondence of the first and second inputs to the 2-bit gray code and a counter is incremented upon a transition between a first state and a second state of the state machine.