diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index a113c33a1..c15cd0b93 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-Release 1.2.1 (in development)
-==============================
+Release 1.3 (in development)
+============================
 
 
 Release 1.2 (released Dec 10, 2013)
diff --git a/sphinx/__init__.py b/sphinx/__init__.py
index e113e1c4c..e359ca3eb 100644
--- a/sphinx/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/__init__.py
@@ -15,8 +15,8 @@
 import sys
 from os import path
 
-__version__  = '1.2'
-__released__ = '1.2'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
+__version__  = '1.3a0'
+__released__ = '1.3a0'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
 # version info for better programmatic use
 # possible values for 3rd element: 'alpha', 'beta', 'rc', 'final'
 # 'final' has 0 as the last element