Jean-François Henri Motel, 1786-1859, was born at Margny-les-Compiegne the son of a tavern keeper and farmer. In 1794 he he went to Prytanée and then to the Ecole des Art et Métier at Chalons until 1806. Having shown great aptitude he was selected by ministerial decision to be intstructed on the art of horology, at the Government's expense, at the workshops of Louis Berthoud.
Motel had only just finished his apprenticeship in 1813 when Berthoud died. However Motel was by then Berthoud's outstanding pupil and more than capable of taking over the mantle of Horloger de la Marine. The job was at first given to Abraham Louis Breguet but such was the quantity of unfinished stock left over in Berthoud's workshop that the Government were obliged to have Motel supply them despite Breguet's official title. Motel's work did not go unnoticed and on Breguet's death in 1823 he was given the the official title.
Motel's work on chronometry was innovative and of the highest quality but he made very few clocks. The present example is one of only two skeleton clocks known by Motel. Its highly individual dial lay-out and complexity of movement is certainly a tribute to an otherwise austere albeit brilliant clockmaker.