Yup, it's a map system from 1927 for getting place to place by winding a little scroll in your watch.
"When motorists wish to turn off the road, they have to pull over to replace the map with another map that corresponds to a number on the junction.
I saw this on MAKE but there's a whole article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-564133/Fancy-driving--earliest-wind-sat-nav.html#ixzz0tKA63xEB