Mathieu Planchon

Clockmaker (1842–1921)

Born in Bourges in 1842, Mathieu Planchon trained in the art of clockmaking under his father before embarking on his Tour de France from 1862. Having settled in Paris, he acquired the business of the clockmaker Adrien Philippe in 1870. He was located on rue Vieille-du-Temple in 1880, and later moved to the Galerie Montpensier at the Palais-Royal in 1890. Initially influenced by Viollet-le-Duc, he produced clocks in the Neo-Gothic style before developing a distinctive aesthetic of his own—the “Planchon style”—freely inspired by Ancien Régime timepieces. A true scholar, he adopted the motto of 17th-century Parisian clockmakers, Solis mendaces arguit horas, asserting the mechanical clock’s superiority over the sundial. He published several treatises on the history of horology and authored the 1900 report on the retrospective museum for the Exposition Universelle. His son-in-law, Paul Brateau, joined him as an associate in 1899 and succeeded him upon his death in 1921. Established on chaussée d’Antin from 1900, the firm relocated to rue Meyerbeer in 1930 before ceasing operations in 1936.