diff --git a/cmd/v/v.v b/cmd/v/v.v
index 2ae98a1ca2..b777d7598c 100644
--- a/cmd/v/v.v
+++ b/cmd/v/v.v
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2019-2024 Alexander Medvednikov. All rights reserved.
 // Use of this source code is governed by an MIT license
 // that can be found in the LICENSE file.
-@[has_globals]
 module main
 
 import os
@@ -60,7 +59,15 @@ const external_tools = [
 ]
 const list_of_flags_that_allow_duplicates = ['cc', 'd', 'define', 'cf', 'cflags']
 
-__global timers = &util.Timers(unsafe { nil })
+@[unsafe]
+fn timers_pointer(p &util.Timers) &util.Timers {
+	// TODO: the static variable here is used as a workaround for the current incompatibility of -usecache and globals in the main module:
+	mut static ptimers := unsafe { &util.Timers(nil) }
+	if p != unsafe { nil } {
+		ptimers = p
+	}
+	return ptimers
+}
 
 fn main() {
 	unbuffer_stdout()
@@ -71,12 +78,18 @@ fn main() {
 	if '-show-timings' in os.args {
 		timers_should_print = true
 	}
-	timers = util.new_timers(should_print: timers_should_print, label: 'main')
+	mut timers := unsafe {
+		timers_pointer(util.new_timers(
+			should_print: timers_should_print
+			label:        'main'
+		))
+	}
 	timers.start('v start')
 	timers.show('v start')
 	timers.start('TOTAL')
 	// use at_exit here, instead of defer, since some code paths later do early exit(0) or exit(1), for showing errors, or after `v run`
 	at_exit(fn () {
+		mut timers := unsafe { timers_pointer(nil) }
 		timers.show('TOTAL')
 	})!
 	timers.start('v parsing CLI args')