Dual-Patented Three-Register Step Counter, Paris, c.1893

At first glance this reads as a chronograph - three subsidiary registers on a centesimal white enamel dial, black hands, an outer scale running 0 to 100. It is in fact a paceometer, a precision step-counting instrument by Henri Chatelain of Paris, from the opening years of the 1890s.

Chatelain was a French scientific instrument maker whose paceometers - better known as pedometers - were produced for surveyors, military use, and serious measurement work. The movement carries two separate patent registrations: the French Brevete S.G.D.G. (ref. 15676) and the German DRGM 10023. That second number matters: the Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster system launched in 1891 at number one, and 10023 places this among the very first registrations - one of the earliest Chatelain instruments to carry the German mark.

The nickel case is 44.5mm and opens to a fully glazed caseback, presenting the gilt brass mechanism as part of the experience. The paceometer functions correctly across all three registers. The enamel shows honest cracking on the left subdial, consistent with age; the front crystal is intact.

A collector's instrument and a genuine scientific curiosity from the very first years of the 1890s.