Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Based on recent improvements of the supernova electron antineutrino emission model, we update the limit on neutrino mass from the SN1987A data collected by Kamiokande-II, IMB and Baksan. We derive the limit of 5.8 eV at 95% CL, that we show to be remarkably insensitive to the astrophysical uncertainties. Also we evaluate the ultimate mass sensitivity of this method for a detector like Super-Kamiokande. We find that the bound lies in the sub-eV region, 0.8 eV at 95% CL being a typical outcome, competitive with the values that are presently probed in laboratory. However, this bound is subject to strong statistical fluctuations, correlated to the characteristics of the first few events detected. We briefly comment on the prospects offered by future detectors. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.3341795287291Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fondo F.S.E. del Piano OperativoCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)