If you’ve been hunting for a genuinely unique conversation piece for a study, workshop, or gallery wall, or you are fortunate enough to own a vehicle of this age, this early 20th-century find is worth a closer look.
Dating to around 1905, this is a Swiss-made "Metroscope" distance and speed indicator—an ingenious little pocket-sized instrument used during the pioneering days of motoring to track speeds and distances in English miles. It features a handsome white enamel face with classic typography, a secondary dial, and its original mounting brackets and thumbscrews. Stamped on the back with the French Breveté S.G.D.G. patent mark and serial number 10667, it carries all the marks of authentic Edwardian engineering.
Condition Note:
This piece is untested, the mechanical functionality has not been verified, it shows natural surface wear, tarnish to the housing, but the dial remains in good clean condition. Whether you choose to display it raw and rustic on a shelf or hand it over to a horologist for a restoration project, it’s an incredible slice of automotive history.
The Metroscope functioned as a mechanical calculator for early vehicle speed and distance, bridging the gap between a pocket watch and a mechanical counter, the cylindrical T-shaped fitting and threaded thumbscrews were used to mount the instrument or couple it to a flexible drive cable. In early motoring, a cable would run down to a gear attached to a non-driven wheel of the automobile. As the wheel spun, it turned the internal gearing of the Metroscope at a ratio proportional to the vehicle's movement. The primary face displayed speed in "English Miles" (mph) via the main sweeping hand, while the smaller subsidiary dial at the bottom (featuring the distinct crescent cutout) functioned as a trip counter or elapsed-distance recorder, tracking cumulative mileage or specific sub-measurements up to several hundred miles. Because early speedometers often relied on watchmaker gear trains (escapements and hairsprings), the knurled winding knobs on the side and back allowed the operator to wind, calibrate, or reset the internal mechanism—functioning much like a specialised mechanical chronograph tailored for navigation and speed trials.
This example would have been used on Edwardian and Veteran Automobiles before dashboards came equipped with standardised, built-in speedometers, early car owners had to purchase aftermarket accessories like this Metroscope. It would have been mounted directly onto the steering column, dashboard board panels, or on a specialised bracket near the driver. Mechanics, early motoring clubs, and transit inspectors also used portable indicators like this as diagnostic tools to test vehicle speeds over measured road courses during trials and reliability runs.
The Metroscope measures 6.7 x 4.6cm (2.64" x 1.8").
