diff --git a/src/Makefile.in b/src/Makefile.in
index af5938b..2d96983 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.in
+++ b/src/Makefile.in
@@ -22,11 +22,18 @@ bindir  = $(exec_prefix)/bin
 VERSION = @PACKAGE_VERSION@
 SCREEN = screen-$(VERSION)
 
+DATE_FMT = %Y-%m-%d %H:%m:%S
+ifdef SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
+    BUILD_DATE := $(shell date -u -d "@$(SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH)" "+$(DATE_FMT)"  2>/dev/null || date -u -r "$(SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH)" "+$(DATE_FMT)" 2>/dev/null || date -u "+$(DATE_FMT)")
+else
+    BUILD_DATE := $(shell date "+$(DATE_FMT)")
+endif
+
 SCREENENCODINGS = $(datadir)/screen/utf8encodings
 
 CC = @CC@
 CFLAGS = @CFLAGS@ -Wall -Wextra -std=c11
-CPPFLAGS = @CPPFLAGS@ -iquote. -DSCREENENCODINGS='"$(SCREENENCODINGS)"'
+CPPFLAGS = @CPPFLAGS@ -iquote. -DSCREENENCODINGS='"$(SCREENENCODINGS)"' -DBUILD_DATE='"$(BUILD_DATE)"'
 LDFLAGS = @LDFLAGS@
 LIBS = @LIBS@
 
diff --git a/src/screen.c b/src/screen.c
index 2e56e2d..9ed23ce 100644
--- a/src/screen.c
+++ b/src/screen.c
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	 *  (otherwise, we might have problems with the select() call)
 	 */
 	closeallfiles(0);
-	snprintf(version, 59, "%d.%d.%d (build on %s %s) ", VERSION_MAJOR, VERSION_MINOR, VERSION_REVISION, __DATE__, __TIME__);
+	snprintf(version, 59, "%d.%d.%d (build on %s) ", VERSION_MAJOR, VERSION_MINOR, VERSION_REVISION, BUILD_DATE);
 	nversion = VERSION_MAJOR * 10000 + VERSION_MINOR * 100 + VERSION_REVISION;
 
 	BellString = SaveStr("Bell in window %n");