diff --git a/contrib/build-osx/make_osx b/contrib/build-osx/make_osx
index 3c3a1babd..b6a4f5b36 100755
--- a/contrib/build-osx/make_osx
+++ b/contrib/build-osx/make_osx
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ src_dir=$(dirname "$0")
 cd $src_dir/../..
 
 export PYTHONHASHSEED=22
-VERSION=`git describe --tags --dirty`
+VERSION=`git describe --tags --dirty --always`
 
 which brew > /dev/null 2>&1 || fail "Please install brew from https://brew.sh/ to continue"
 
diff --git a/contrib/build-wine/build-electrum-git.sh b/contrib/build-wine/build-electrum-git.sh
index f98a77a16..752d57271 100755
--- a/contrib/build-wine/build-electrum-git.sh
+++ b/contrib/build-wine/build-electrum-git.sh
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ pushd $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/electrum
 git submodule init
 git submodule update
 
-VERSION=`git describe --tags --dirty || printf 'custom'`
+VERSION=`git describe --tags --dirty --always`
 echo "Last commit: $VERSION"
 
 pushd ./contrib/deterministic-build/electrum-locale