diff --git a/examples/timeline/dataHandling/dataSerialization.html b/examples/timeline/dataHandling/dataSerialization.html
index 291f9ad0..79b6aebf 100644
--- a/examples/timeline/dataHandling/dataSerialization.html
+++ b/examples/timeline/dataHandling/dataSerialization.html
@@ -35,12 +35,12 @@
 
 <textarea id="data">
 [
-  {"id": 1, "content": "item 1<br>start", "start": "2014-01-23"},
-  {"id": 2, "content": "item 2", "start": "2014-01-18"},
-  {"id": 3, "content": "item 3", "start": "2014-01-21"},
-  {"id": 4, "content": "item 4", "start": "2014-01-19", "end": "2014-01-24"},
-  {"id": 5, "content": "item 5", "start": "2014-01-28", "type": "point"},
-  {"id": 6, "content": "item 6", "start": "2014-01-26"}
+  {"id": 1, "content": "item 1", "start": "2014-01-01 01:00:00"},
+  {"id": 2, "content": "item 2", "start": "2014-01-01 02:00:00"},
+  {"id": 3, "content": "item 3", "start": "2014-01-01 03:00:00"},
+  {"id": 4, "content": "item 4", "start": "2014-01-01 04:00:00", "end": "2014-01-01 04:30:00"},
+  {"id": 5, "content": "item 5", "start": "2014-01-01 05:00:00", "type": "point"},
+  {"id": 6, "content": "item 6", "start": "2014-01-01 06:00:00"}
 ]
 </textarea>
 
@@ -89,9 +89,10 @@
 
   function saveData() {
     // get the data from the DataSet
+    //
     // Note that we specify the output type of the fields start and end
-    // as ISODate, which is safely serializable. Other serializable types
-    // are Number (unix timestamp) or ASPDate.
+    // as "ISODate", which is safely serializable. Other serializable types
+    // are "Number" (unix timestamp), "ASPDate" or "String" (without timezone!).
     //
     // Alternatively, it is possible to configure the DataSet to convert
     // the output automatically to ISODates like:
@@ -118,4 +119,4 @@
   loadData();
 </script>
 </body>
-</html>
\ No newline at end of file
+</html>
diff --git a/lib/util.js b/lib/util.js
index f9506a6a..9ced5862 100644
--- a/lib/util.js
+++ b/lib/util.js
@@ -392,8 +392,11 @@ exports.convert = function (object, type) {
 
     case 'number':
     case 'Number':
-      return Number(object.valueOf());
-
+      if (!isNaN(Date.parse(object))) {
+        return moment(object).valueOf();
+      } else {
+        return Number(object.valueOf());
+      }
     case 'string':
     case 'String':
       return String(object);
@@ -467,7 +470,7 @@ exports.convert = function (object, type) {
           return new Date(Number(match[1])).toISOString(); // parse number
         }
         else {
-          return new Date(object).toISOString(); // parse string
+          return moment(object).format(); // ISO 8601
         }
       }
       else {
@@ -1477,4 +1480,4 @@ exports.getScrollBarWidth = function () {
   document.body.removeChild (outer);
 
   return (w1 - w2);
-};
\ No newline at end of file
+};