diff --git a/hack/lib/version.sh b/hack/lib/version.sh
index f1c22f017d342..c8cf6f6de31ab 100644
--- a/hack/lib/version.sh
+++ b/hack/lib/version.sh
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ kube::version::ldflag() {
 kube::version::ldflags() {
   kube::version::get_version_vars
 
-  local -a ldflags=()
+  local -a ldflags=($(kube::version::ldflag "buildDate" "$(date -u +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')"))
   if [[ -n ${KUBE_GIT_COMMIT-} ]]; then
     ldflags+=($(kube::version::ldflag "gitCommit" "${KUBE_GIT_COMMIT}"))
     ldflags+=($(kube::version::ldflag "gitTreeState" "${KUBE_GIT_TREE_STATE}"))
diff --git a/pkg/client/unversioned/helper.go b/pkg/client/unversioned/helper.go
index 3ee6d6ec69b4c..953b57463a677 100644
--- a/pkg/client/unversioned/helper.go
+++ b/pkg/client/unversioned/helper.go
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ package unversioned
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
-	"reflect"
 
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/unversioned"
@@ -98,13 +97,14 @@ func MatchesServerVersion(client *Client, c *restclient.Config) error {
 			return err
 		}
 	}
-	clientVersion := version.Get()
-	serverVersion, err := client.Discovery().ServerVersion()
+	cVer := version.Get()
+	sVer, err := client.Discovery().ServerVersion()
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("couldn't read version from server: %v\n", err)
 	}
-	if s := *serverVersion; !reflect.DeepEqual(clientVersion, s) {
-		return fmt.Errorf("server version (%#v) differs from client version (%#v)!\n", s, clientVersion)
+	// GitVersion includes GitCommit and GitTreeState, but best to be safe?
+	if cVer.GitVersion != sVer.GitVersion || cVer.GitCommit != sVer.GitCommit || cVer.GitTreeState != cVer.GitTreeState {
+		return fmt.Errorf("server version (%#v) differs from client version (%#v)!\n", sVer, cVer)
 	}
 
 	return nil
diff --git a/pkg/metrics/generic_metrics.go b/pkg/metrics/generic_metrics.go
index eecae0e70919f..d746c00d9724b 100644
--- a/pkg/metrics/generic_metrics.go
+++ b/pkg/metrics/generic_metrics.go
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ var CommonMetrics = map[string][]string{
 	"http_response_size_bytes":                 {"handler", "quantile"},
 	"http_response_size_bytes_count":           {"handler"},
 	"http_response_size_bytes_sum":             {"handler"},
-	"kubernetes_build_info":                    {"major", "minor", "gitCommit", "gitTreeState", "gitVersion"},
+	"kubernetes_build_info":                    {"major", "minor", "gitCommit", "gitTreeState", "gitVersion", "buildDate", "goVersion", "compiler", "platform"},
 	"process_cpu_seconds_total":                {},
 	"process_max_fds":                          {},
 	"process_open_fds":                         {},
diff --git a/pkg/version/base.go b/pkg/version/base.go
index e00792df08839..fd6404775ca65 100644
--- a/pkg/version/base.go
+++ b/pkg/version/base.go
@@ -54,4 +54,6 @@ var (
 	gitVersion   string = "v0.0.0-master+$Format:%h$"
 	gitCommit    string = "$Format:%H$"    // sha1 from git, output of $(git rev-parse HEAD)
 	gitTreeState string = "not a git tree" // state of git tree, either "clean" or "dirty"
+
+	buildDate string = "1970-01-01T00:00:00Z" // build date in ISO8601 format, output of $(date -u +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')
 )
diff --git a/pkg/version/version.go b/pkg/version/version.go
index e337abe4baacc..b8ac0d6c35f32 100644
--- a/pkg/version/version.go
+++ b/pkg/version/version.go
@@ -16,7 +16,12 @@ limitations under the License.
 
 package version
 
-import "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"runtime"
+
+	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
+)
 
 // Info contains versioning information.
 // TODO: Add []string of api versions supported? It's still unclear
@@ -27,6 +32,10 @@ type Info struct {
 	GitVersion   string `json:"gitVersion"`
 	GitCommit    string `json:"gitCommit"`
 	GitTreeState string `json:"gitTreeState"`
+	BuildDate    string `json:"buildDate"`
+	GoVersion    string `json:"goVersion"`
+	Compiler     string `json:"compiler"`
+	Platform     string `json:"platform"`
 }
 
 // Get returns the overall codebase version. It's for detecting
@@ -40,6 +49,10 @@ func Get() Info {
 		GitVersion:   gitVersion,
 		GitCommit:    gitCommit,
 		GitTreeState: gitTreeState,
+		BuildDate:    buildDate,
+		GoVersion:    runtime.Version(),
+		Compiler:     runtime.Compiler,
+		Platform:     fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", runtime.GOOS, runtime.GOARCH),
 	}
 }
 
@@ -52,12 +65,12 @@ func init() {
 	buildInfo := prometheus.NewGaugeVec(
 		prometheus.GaugeOpts{
 			Name: "kubernetes_build_info",
-			Help: "A metric with a constant '1' value labeled by major, minor, git version, git commit and git tree state from which Kubernetes was built.",
+			Help: "A metric with a constant '1' value labeled by major, minor, git version, git commit, git tree state, build date, Go version, and compiler from which Kubernetes was built, and platform on which it is running.",
 		},
-		[]string{"major", "minor", "gitVersion", "gitCommit", "gitTreeState"},
+		[]string{"major", "minor", "gitVersion", "gitCommit", "gitTreeState", "buildDate", "goVersion", "compiler", "platform"},
 	)
 	info := Get()
-	buildInfo.WithLabelValues(info.Major, info.Minor, info.GitVersion, info.GitCommit, info.GitTreeState).Set(1)
+	buildInfo.WithLabelValues(info.Major, info.Minor, info.GitVersion, info.GitCommit, info.GitTreeState, info.BuildDate, info.GoVersion, info.Compiler, info.Platform).Set(1)
 
 	prometheus.MustRegister(buildInfo)
 }