Shaft runout has an important influence on the machining performance of machine tools. To meet the requirements of high precision, real-time and on-line shaft runout measurement, a novel efficient laser coherence technique for shaft runout measurement is proposed. Because of the use of a stable and reliable He-Ne laser based on Zeeman effect as the light source, the technique has the advantages of high sensitivity, high signal-to-noise ratio, high accuracy and long detection range. In addition, with the transmission by optical fiber, the flexibility and anti-interference of measurement are further improved. The demand of real-time and online long range measurement can be satisfied. The experimental result shows that the measurement uncertainty of this system is less than 0.1%.