diff --git a/include/wx/cppunit.h b/include/wx/cppunit.h
index a7affd50ae..3b4281cfa1 100644
--- a/include/wx/cppunit.h
+++ b/include/wx/cppunit.h
@@ -104,6 +104,10 @@
         }                                                                     \
     }
 
+// Use this macro to compare the expected time_t value with the result of not
+// necessarily time_t type
+#define WX_ASSERT_TIME_T_EQUAL(t, n) CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL((t), (time_t)(n))
+
 // Use this macro to assert with the given formatted message (it should contain
 // the format string and arguments in a separate pair of parentheses)
 #define WX_ASSERT_MESSAGE(msg, cond) \
diff --git a/src/common/datetime.cpp b/src/common/datetime.cpp
index 297258a17b..7fdd2affd1 100644
--- a/src/common/datetime.cpp
+++ b/src/common/datetime.cpp
@@ -376,11 +376,13 @@ wxDateTime::Country wxDateTime::ms_country = wxDateTime::Country_Unknown;
 
 // debugger helper: shows what the date really is
 #ifdef __WXDEBUG__
-extern const wxChar *wxDumpDate(const wxDateTime* dt)
+extern const char *wxDumpDate(const wxDateTime* dt)
 {
-    static wxChar buf[128];
+    static char buf[128];
 
-    wxStrcpy(buf, dt->Format(_T("%Y-%m-%d (%a) %H:%M:%S")));
+    wxString fmt(dt->Format("%Y-%m-%d (%a) %H:%M:%S"));
+    wxStrncpy(buf, fmt + " (" + dt->GetValue().ToString() + " ticks)",
+              WXSIZEOF(buf));
 
     return buf;
 }
diff --git a/tests/datetime/datetimetest.cpp b/tests/datetime/datetimetest.cpp
index 20e93fafae..9fcbd29a25 100644
--- a/tests/datetime/datetimetest.cpp
+++ b/tests/datetime/datetimetest.cpp
@@ -737,11 +737,11 @@ void DateTimeTestCase::TestTimeTicks()
         // ignore DST, the test data already takes it into account
         dt.MakeTimezone(TZ_TEST, true);
         long ticks = (dt.GetValue() / 1000).ToLong();
-        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( d.ticks, ticks + tzOffset );
+        WX_ASSERT_TIME_T_EQUAL( d.ticks, ticks + tzOffset );
 
         dt = d.DT().FromTimezone(wxDateTime::UTC);
         ticks = (dt.GetValue() / 1000).ToLong();
-        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( d.gmticks, ticks );
+        WX_ASSERT_TIME_T_EQUAL( d.gmticks, ticks );
     }
 }