Merle Mila and Mike Kobold . Mila co-stars in an upcoming film about the latest fire truck expedition . become an expert of telling the story of how tiny Nepal was cut off from its only fuel and gas supply .
As Kobold tells it , the prime minister of Nepal , K . P . Oli , enlisted him to make the secret blockade public by using the fire truck expedition as a PR vehicle . The plan worked a few months later , when Kobold got the blockade story onto prime time news across America . “ The Indian embassy got a lot of angry calls from American Indians who felt embarrassed by the negative news coverage ,” Kobold chuckles , reminding himself once more that there is no such thing as bad PR .
Sitting in a seat at a Berlin hotel , the balding 43-year-old looks a lot older than his age , but his cheerfulness still pierces through when he recounts what happened next .
“ I thought we did a great job exposing India . Well , the Indian embassy in Kathmandu paid me back tenfold with a media campaign of its own . But all they did was raise my profile in Nepal , which is exactly what I wanted . It was highly enjoyable !”
MORE CLAIMS Kobold seemed to equally enjoy another negative article , this one published by
Timezone and titled “ The Truth About Michael Kobold And The Kobold Watch Company .”
In it , the author makes a number of sensational claims alleging wrongdoing by Kobold , which he denies . “ What is true is the claim that a lot Kobold customers
did not receive their watches . This is undeniably true . It ’ s the result of a series of unfortunate events starting with the problems we encountered setting up our CNC machines and the case production . Today , we ’ ve rebuilt Kobold and hundreds of customers have received their watches . Most are happy , a few are still sour grapes . Understandably so ,” he says .
Today Kobold is busy directing a film crew to follow a young fashion model around Berlin . Merle Mila is the co-star of the fire truck expedition , which Kobold has resurrected . A team of twenty-five volunteers from all over the world is busy turning Kobold ’ s and Gandolfini ’ s dream of the fire truck expedition into reality .
When asked why despite all the negative publicity Kobold attracted over the years they came all the way to Berlin in support , they all gave variations of the following reply by Keith Filbert from Pittsburgh , who has been a Kobold customer for over twenty years : “ I watched Mike build Kobold and I am now watching him rebuild it . His passion for his watches and his dedication to his causes is inspiring . I ’ m proud to be part of the expedition and I continue to buy Kobold watches to show my support .”
Kobold explains that the expedition fulfills a promise he made to the people of Nepal to deliver a new fire truck . “ This expedition is symbolic . If I ’ m willing to work this hard to deliver a fire truck to Nepal , then every Kobold customer who ’ s still waiting for his watch can bet their bottom dollar on one thing : They will all receive their watches , each and every one . One hundred percent .” By Gary George in partnership with Mike Kobold
42 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | FALL 2022