A pad printing machine (1) to print an object (8) in at least two stages, said machine comprising at least one printing pad (6) to print said object and at least two printing plate zones (10) within each of which a printing plate (14) may be moved into the desired position, the pad printing machine furthermore comprising an image recorder (44) generating an image of at least a partial area of at least one printing plate zone (10), and a comparator (46) to compare the image generated by said recorder (44) with reference data.