diff --git a/Lib/test/test_time.py b/Lib/test/test_time.py
index 0e4d70284bf..18e056826a6 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_time.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_time.py
@@ -465,10 +465,6 @@ def test_bug_3061(self):
         time.strftime("%B", (2009,2,1,0,0,0,0,0,0))
 
 
-class _BaseYearTest(unittest.TestCase):
-    def yearstr(self, y):
-        raise NotImplementedError()
-
 class _TestAsctimeYear:
     _format = '%d'
 
@@ -526,7 +522,7 @@ def test_negative(self):
     del skip_if_not_supported
 
 
-class _Test4dYear(_BaseYearTest):
+class _Test4dYear:
     _format = '%d'
 
     def test_year(self, fmt=None, func=None):
@@ -559,10 +555,10 @@ def test_negative(self):
         self.assertRaises(OverflowError, self.yearstr, TIME_MINYEAR - 1)
 
 
-class TestAsctime4dyear(_TestAsctimeYear, _Test4dYear):
+class TestAsctime4dyear(_TestAsctimeYear, _Test4dYear, unittest.TestCase):
     pass
 
-class TestStrftime4dyear(_TestStrftimeYear, _Test4dYear):
+class TestStrftime4dyear(_TestStrftimeYear, _Test4dYear, unittest.TestCase):
     pass
 
 
@@ -679,13 +675,6 @@ def test_short_times(self):
         self.assertIs(lt.tm_gmtoff, None)
         self.assertIs(lt.tm_zone, None)
 
-def test_main():
-    support.run_unittest(
-        TimeTestCase,
-        TestLocale,
-        TestAsctime4dyear,
-        TestStrftime4dyear,
-        TestPytime)
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    test_main()
+    unittest.main()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 3c73b351b0c..b8f687b5569 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -74,6 +74,9 @@ Tests
 - Issue #12820: add tests for the xml.dom.minicompat module.
   Patch by John Chandler and Phil Connell.
 
+- Issue #17690: test_time now works with unittest test discovery.
+  Patch by Zachary Ware.
+
 Documentation
 -------------