The present invention relates to a hand position detecting device. When detecting a rotational position of a seconds hand, it is determined whether data stored in a register in correspondence with a supply state of a drive current previously supplied to a coil of a stepping motor is ''0''. When the data is ''0'', the rotational position of the seconds hand is optically detected. When the data is ''1'', the seconds hand is rotated one step, and then, the rotational position of the seconds hand is optically detected. Even though the seconds hand is shifted one second, the position detection is executed every two steps. Thereby detecting the rotational position with simple structure and high precision, and preventing the consumption of electric power.