The Salon de l'Horloge in the French Foreign Ministry in Paris, where the Metre Convention was signed.

The Metre Convention was signed on 20 May 1875, a date now celebrated as World Metrology Day. The Convention created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) and set the framework for global collaboration in the science of measurement and in its industrial, commercial and societal application. The original aim of the Metre Convention – the world-wide uniformity of measurement – remains as important today, in 2006, as it was in 1875.