For nearly two centuries, generations of clockmakers from Besançon have transmitted their values,knowledges and passion for this job that has deeply rooted into Besançon territory. In the 70's, thenew "quartz" technic questioned the traditional clock-making and the traditional watchmakingdisappeared. Then come the turn of an activity based on microtechnics, wich is seen as the legacy ofclock-making knowledge. What is the true nature of this legacy ? Throughout our Phd, we fried toanswer this question, analysing how the watchmaking industry evolved to microtechnics. We triedto anderstand how the professional categories, that used to be united around a common project andunited by a higly cohesive culture, set apart in a crisis time. The jobs wich were initially occupedcreated little by little some specific identities, hidden however by the global culture. In this periodof relative instability caused by environnemental changes, these identities assert and the normes,representations and values of each group create different logics. The group wich is abble to drowfrom it's own resources to adapt itself to the environnemental changes gets the power that otherslose when they refuse these changes. Thus, the orientation of this activity to the microtecnics sectorcan be conceived as a stratégy wich would help the knowledge of one of the present categoriesperpetuate. Rhater than a simple adjusting phenomenon to new economical and technical contraints,this change can therefore be also analysed as a microsocial phenomenon resulting from logics andfights to master the future of this territorialized industrie
