diff --git a/skimage/__init__.py b/skimage/__init__.py
index a58f1c54..d7bfb5a2 100644
--- a/skimage/__init__.py
+++ b/skimage/__init__.py
@@ -56,7 +56,10 @@ import os.path as _osp
 pkg_dir = _osp.abspath(_osp.dirname(__file__))
 data_dir = _osp.join(pkg_dir, 'data')
 
-from version import version as __version__
+try:
+    from .version import version as __version__
+except ImportError:
+    __version__ = "unbuilt-dev"
 
 def _setup_test(verbose=False):
     import gzip
diff --git a/skimage/version.py b/skimage/version.py
deleted file mode 100644
index ab15b0be..00000000
--- a/skimage/version.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-# THIS FILE IS GENERATED FROM THE SKIMAGE SETUP.PY
-version='unbuilt-dev'