Patented Three-Register Step Counter, Paris, c.1900
At first glance this reads as a chronograph: three subsidiary registers on a centesimal white enamel dial, blued steel 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 around 1900.
Chatelain was a Paris maker of precision instruments, founded in the late 1870s and known for pedometers and map measures. The swinging weight is stamped BREVETE S.G.D.G., the Swiss federal cross with patent number 15676, and D.R.G.M., above the H C trade mark. Swiss patent 15676 is Chatelain's own four-hand pedometer, filed on 10 January 1898, so this example dates from 1898 or later.
The nickel case is 44.5mm and is open at the back, showing the engraved white-metal plate and gilt wheels. The paceometer functions correctly across all three registers. The enamel has an old chip with staining at the centre of the left register and hairlines across the dial; the front crystal is intact.
A scientific curiosity from around 1900, with all four hands working.
