An optical reading device for a pointer instrument which has a pointer and a scale face or dial with different degrees of reflectance in each case, includes an illumination device for illuminating the scale face or dial and a plurality of light sensor elements which are arranged in a circular arc about the rotational axis of the pointer in order to detect the light of the illumination device reflected back by the scale face or dial, wherein the illumination device is configured to uniformly illuminate the scale face or dial and each light sensor element is configured with an isosceles triangle outline, where each light sensor element is offset with respect to one another by half of the base width in the circumferential direction of the circular arc.