The present invention is related to an apparatus and a method for the measurement of the vertical position of upper and lower punches, pairwisely associated to a rotatably driven rotor of a rotary tablet press and rotating synchronously with the rotor, which perform a vertical movement in certain regions along the circumference of their rotational movement during a rotation of the rotor. The apparatus features at least one scale arranged on at least one of the upper and/or lower punches, running in parallel to the vertical movement direction of the respective upper and/or lower punch, and at least one reading device associated to the scale, also rotating synchronously with the rotor, by means of which a vertical position of the respective upper and/or lower punch can be measured by reading out the scale. The inventions is furthermore related to a corresponding rotary tablet press and a corresponding method.