diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py b/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
index 20595ef5e581..762dcd6e4806 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
@@ -1135,10 +1135,10 @@ def validate_animation_writer_path(p):
     'date.autoformatter.year': ['%Y', six.text_type],
     'date.autoformatter.month': ['%Y-%m', six.text_type],
     'date.autoformatter.day': ['%Y-%m-%d', six.text_type],
-    'date.autoformatter.hour': ['%H:%M', six.text_type],
-    'date.autoformatter.minute': ['%H:%M:%S', six.text_type],
+    'date.autoformatter.hour': ['%m-%d %H', six.text_type],
+    'date.autoformatter.minute': ['%d %H:%M', six.text_type],
     'date.autoformatter.second': ['%H:%M:%S', six.text_type],
-    'date.autoformatter.microsecond': ['%H:%M:%S.%f', six.text_type],
+    'date.autoformatter.microsecond': ['%M:%S.%f', six.text_type],
 
     #legend properties
     'legend.fancybox': [True, validate_bool],
diff --git a/matplotlibrc.template b/matplotlibrc.template
index df42caaf142d..f5dce983d9b5 100644
--- a/matplotlibrc.template
+++ b/matplotlibrc.template
@@ -363,10 +363,10 @@ backend      : $TEMPLATE_BACKEND
 # date.autoformatter.year     : %Y
 # date.autoformatter.month    : %Y-%m
 # date.autoformatter.day      : %Y-%m-%d
-# date.autoformatter.hour     : %H:%M
-# date.autoformatter.minute   : %H:%M:%S
+# date.autoformatter.hour     : %m-%d %H
+# date.autoformatter.minute   : %d %H:%M
 # date.autoformatter.second   : %H:%M:%S
-# date.autoformatter.microsecond   : %H:%M:%S.%f
+# date.autoformatter.microsecond   : %M:%S.%f
 
 ### TICKS
 # see http://matplotlib.org/api/axis_api.html#matplotlib.axis.Tick