It is well known that high gain observers exist for single output nonlinear systems that are uniformly observable and globally Lipschitzian. Under the same conditions, we show that these systems admit semi-global and finite-time converging observers. This is achieved with a derivation of a new sufficient condition for local finite-time stability, in conjunction with applications of geometric homogeneity and Lyapunov theories. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.