Decimal or Revolutionary time was adopted by decree of the National convention on 24 November 1793. It stipulated that the Gregorian calendar should be abandoned and replaced by the Republican calendar which divided the day into ten hours each with one hundred minutes and then further sub-divided into 100 seconds
Although perhaps a logical 'simplification' of timekeeping the habits of the populous were difficult to change. The new system meant having to design a new dial and therefore a competition was organised to invent clear and easy-to-read dials. No system was ever adopted and clockmakers had little reason to support the new system because they found that their Revolutionary clocks were useless outside France and so the export trade suffered badly. By 1795 it was no longer compulsory to use decimal time and even before then clocks and watches were being made with both 'old' and the 'new' system as with the present example.
Finally it was decreed that decimal time had proved impossible to implement and from 1 January 1805 timekeeping officially reverted back to the old system.