ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the milieu’s structural development mainly on the basis of the historical changes undergone by the watch industry in the Swiss and French Jura Arc. A comparative analysis of the development of the watchmaking milieux in the French and Swiss Jura Arc calls for an original conceptual framework to be set up. The factors relate mainly to the market and technology, but encompass geographical, political, legal, economic, social, and cultural aspects. In the early 1970s the watch industry in Franche-Comte presented a disorganised front to the upheavals that were to change the face of world watchmaking. The strategic option enabled it to retain its internal cohesion, but at the expense of its compatibility with the technological environment and of integration of electronics- and quartz-related technologies. Two features characterise the integration of the quartz watch and electronics into the watchmaking fabric of the Jura Arc: highly advanced research and rather slow industrialisation compared with foreign competitors.
