diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 52bd2d4ff..166782d2c 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 import sys
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+import versioneer
 
 # Force distutils to use py_compile.compile() function with 'doraise' argument
 # set to True, in order to raise an exception on compilation errors
@@ -42,18 +43,9 @@ fonts. The package also contains a tool called "TTX" which converts
 TrueType/OpenType fonts to and from an XML-based format.
 """
 
-version_template = """\
-# file generated by setuptools_scm
-# don't change, don't track in version control
-__version__ = {version!r}
-"""
-
 setup(
 	name="fonttools",
-	use_scm_version={
-		"write_to": "Lib/fontTools/version.py",
-		"write_to_template": version_template,
-	},
+	version=versioneer.get_version(),
 	description="Tools to manipulate font files",
 	author="Just van Rossum",
 	author_email="just@letterror.com",
@@ -70,9 +62,7 @@ setup(
 	data_files=[
 		('share/man/man1', ["Doc/ttx.1"])
 	] if sys.platform.startswith('linux') else [],
-	setup_requires=[
-			"setuptools_scm>=1.11.1",
-		] + pytest_runner + wheel,
+	setup_requires=pytest_runner + wheel,
 	tests_require=[
 		'pytest>=2.8',
 	],
@@ -84,5 +74,6 @@ setup(
 			"pyftinspect = fontTools.inspect:main"
 		]
 	},
+	cmdclass=versioneer.get_cmdclass(),
 	**classifiers
 )