iW Fall/Winter 2022 iW Fall/Winter 2022 | Page 41

Kobold is back . Where have you been ?

INTERVIEW

Kobold is back . Where have you been ?

Michael Kobold anyone else who wants to see it my visa stamp from the U . S . embassy .
What did happen was that each time I returned to the States I issued my colleagues at Kobold with specific instructions , I showed them how to repair the damage that had been caused . But each time I left they continued sabotaging the company out of greed and other motivations , including working with an outfit hellbent to have Kobold shut down . Why ? To silence me . Because what I will reveal in my film and book will cause a lot of geopolitical damage and embarrass a lot of public officials , including a few former ambassadors and former heads of government .
WHY DID YOU KEEP RETURNING TO NEPAL ?
Kobold never completely ceased operations . We had lapses in certain areas , yes . But since I founded the company in 1998 , we ’ ve been making , selling and repairing watches . Albeit with significant delays between 2014 and 2021 . This was due to internal sabotage my company experienced at the hands of certain employees . In 2021 I began rebuilding Kobold and since then things returned to normal . We ’ ve shipped hundreds of new and serviced watches to customers this year alone . There ’ s still a lot of room for improvement . But in 2023 , Kobold will finally return to its old self .
THERE ARE MANY WHO QUESTION YOUR JUDGMENT . WHY SHOULD THEY GIVE YOU THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT ?
My focus is on the company ’ s supporters , not on its detractors . That ’ s a philosophy I ’ ve held since Kobold ’ s first day in operation . It ’ s true that many of the supporters had really negative experiences as a result of what happened at Kobold and they were justifiably angry with me and at the brand . But most of those old supporters are once again loyal Koboldians . That ’ s because they now understand that I had a very difficult judgment call to make and they now support me in that decision .
YOU ’ RE REFERRING TO 2015 , WHEN YOU STAYED IN NEPAL INSTEAD OF COMING BACK TO THE STATES TO FIX THINGS AT KOBOLD .
That ’ s exactly what happened . I found myself in a unique position to help the people of Nepal overcome the greatest humanitarian crisis in the country ’ s history , the Indian blockade . Which was not only illegal , but also secret because India never admitted being behind the blockade . So there I was in Nepal , in late 2015 , with winter already in full swing , up in the Himalayas . More than 30 million people without access to cooking gas , fuel , basic medicine . I made a decision to do everything in my power to help the then-prime minister of Nepal to make the blockade public . That plan worked . We saved a lot of lives , because the blockade was lifted in late February of 2016 . The shortest of all of India ’ s four blockades in the last 50 years . And I have every bit of it on film . One day , that film will be released . Then anyone who still questions my judgment either doesn ’ t have a heart or a brain .
WHY DIDN ’ T YOU RETURN AFTER THE BLOCKADE ENDED ?
It ’ s incorrect to claim that I didn ’ t return to the States . I did return three times . Each time for two to three months . I still have a five-year-visa in my passport that allows me to live in the U . S . So it ’ s not like I skipped the country and can ’ t come back . That , too , is one of many complete fabrications of that infamous Timezone post . Perhaps the one I can disprove most easily because I can just show you and
For two reasons : First I made a promise to deliver at least one fire truck to Nepal . There was a lot of money tied up in that project and the potential profit from the project was substantial as well . I planned to invest that money back into Kobold . Hire a new team , reset things , make customers happy again . Basically exactly what I have been doing since 2021 .
There will always be naysayers , people who are sour grapes , and detractors . But today we have a situation where most customers are again very happy . Still room for improvement , like I said earlier . But it ’ s a huge improvement already .
The second reason is that after I not only documented the secret Indian blockade of Nepal but also exposed it publicly , the Nepalese really began to trust me with some of their country ’ s most well-kept secrets .
DO YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT THAT KOBOLD WILL RETURN TO ITS FORMER GLORY ? THERE WERE TIMES WHEN YOU YOURSELF WERE TREATED LIKE WATCHMAKING ROYALTY .
That ’ s nonsense , there is no watchmaking royalty in America , not even Roland Murphy whom I greatly admire and who has done a fantastic job with RGM , is watchmaking royalty . And certainly I would never consider myself watchmaking royalty .
This year I finally started taking watchmaking classes again from a master watchmaker , twenty years after I first began learning watchmaking . I ’ ll never be a world-class watchmaker , unfortunately . But that ’ s not my specialty . I specialize in product design , finding experts to turn my designs into reality and branding .
KOBOLD ’ S MOTTO IS STILL EMBRACE ADVENTURE ?
That ’ s correct . And just this year we finally completed the Nepal Fire Truck Expedition , one of the greatest adventures of all time .
We drove through a terrorism-plagued region of Turkey ; entered Iran the day after the German government published a bulletin advising German nationals to leave the country . It was the height of the protest movement , which some have called a second revolution .
We traversed the entire length of Iran before driving through Pakistan along the border of Afghanistan , with a military and police escort before they bid us farewell and said it was too dangerous for them to proceed . So we continued under guard by the tribal militias . Then we drove through India and then through all of Nepal . In a bright red fire truck with German number plates , blue lights flashing for good measure . We did all of that after every official , journalist , expedition leader , and insurance company told us it ’ s impossible . And don ’ t forget we did that after my Nepalese colleagues and I shattered India ’ s iron-clad blockade of 2015-16 . So do I think we can rebuild Kobold and restore the brand name to its former self ? Absolutely !
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