diff --git a/core/mp_common.h b/core/mp_common.h
index 4abbe70caf..184cea2a32 100644
--- a/core/mp_common.h
+++ b/core/mp_common.h
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 #define ROUND(x) ((int)((x) < 0 ? (x) - 0.5 : (x) + 0.5))
 
 extern const char *mplayer_version;
+extern const char *mplayer_builddate;
 
 char *mp_format_time(double time, bool fractions);
 
diff --git a/core/mplayer.c b/core/mplayer.c
index 7e9ee62516..c636c0012c 100644
--- a/core/mplayer.c
+++ b/core/mplayer.c
@@ -4186,7 +4186,7 @@ static void play_files(struct MPContext *mpctx)
 static void print_version(int always)
 {
     mp_msg(MSGT_CPLAYER, always ? MSGL_INFO : MSGL_V,
-           "%s (C) 2000-2012 mpv/MPlayer/mplayer2 projects\n", mplayer_version);
+           "%s (C) 2000-2012 mpv/MPlayer/mplayer2 projects\n built on %s\n", mplayer_version, mplayer_builddate);
 }
 
 static bool handle_help_options(struct MPContext *mpctx)
diff --git a/core/version.c b/core/version.c
index f06f0afc30..7e747044a3 100644
--- a/core/version.c
+++ b/core/version.c
@@ -19,3 +19,4 @@
 #include "version.h"
 
 const char *mplayer_version  = "mpv " VERSION;
+const char *mplayer_builddate = BUILDDATE;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/version.sh b/version.sh
index 3b0c319c83..a907dd26ad 100755
--- a/version.sh
+++ b/version.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+export LC_ALL=C
+
 test "$1" && extra="-$1"
 
 # Extract revision number from file used by daily tarball snapshots
@@ -15,10 +17,12 @@ test $version || version=git-$git_revision
 
 NEW_REVISION="#define VERSION \"${version}${extra}\""
 OLD_REVISION=$(head -n 1 version.h 2> /dev/null)
+BUILDDATE="#define BUILDDATE \"$(date)\""
 
 # Update version.h only on revision changes to avoid spurious rebuilds
 if test "$NEW_REVISION" != "$OLD_REVISION"; then
     cat <<EOF > version.h
 $NEW_REVISION
+$BUILDDATE
 EOF
 fi