I have looked at the newest length measuring thing I have, it has a vernier scale, with mm one side and inches the other side. No cm shown, it also has a digital display also in mm and inches. Moving to a tape measure, it says 16 feet and 5m it is marked with numbers on the metric side, and a zero is missing for clarity, but since it neither says mm nor cm, the only other mark is F clearly for feet, can't really say marked in cm, even if at 1 meter it says 100, it is simply a zero has been omitted for clarity. It says 1-6 between 18 and 19 at the 18.5 inches mark, but even without an arrow, it is clear that refers to the 18-inch mark.
It does seem only equipment for schools, say cm, with industrial equipment it has gone.