French silver decimal pocket tachometer watch Circa 1860

Silver hunting cased cylinder watch
–
A fine, rare and unusual French, silver hunting cased decimal pocket tachometer watch, circa 1860. Calibrated to measure 100 seconds at one-second intervals, central progressive one second register hand and table for calculating the speed in kilometres per hour from the seconds elapsed. Tachymetre Systeme E. Marie, made for the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée, railway company, circa 1860.

A polished case, the back engraved: P. L. M. Exploitation, the tachometer table engraved inside the cover calculated for one kilometre. Hinged silver cuvette. White enamel dial with radial Arabic numerals and 10 x 10-second divisions. Blued steel hands. A  gilt brass movement, half-plate with going barrel, cylinder escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, blued steel flat balance spring with a regulator. Tachometer bolt and reset slide in the band. Dial and cuvette signed.
–
Diameter: 58 mm
–
Signed: Paul Garnier  Paris
–
The Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) was created between 1858 and 1862 as a result of the amalgamation of the earlier Paris-Lyon and Lyon-Méditerranée companies, and subsequently incorporating a number of smaller railways, the PLM operated chiefly in the south-east of France, with a mainline which connected Paris to the Cote d’Azur via Dijon, Lyon and Marseille, the company also operated railways in Algeria. PLM was integrated into the majority state-owned Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais (SNCF) in 1938 and became the south-eastern region of SNCF which includes the RER which has serviced Geneva since 1912.