WatchTime - August 2012

WATCHtalk
Namgel Sherpa, left, and Thundu Sherpa as mountain guides and as watchmakers
Made in Nepal
Michael Kobold, who founded
Kobold Watch Co. in Pittsburgh
14 years ago, has now opened a
branch in, of all places, Kathmandu,
Nepal.
It all began in 2008 when Kobold, an
avid mountaineer, and Kobold Watch-endorser
and celebrated explorer Sir Ranulph
Fiennes met two Sherpas, working
as porters and mountain guides, during
an unsuccessful bid by Fiennes to reach
the top of Mount Everest. Fiennes and
Kobold met the two Sherpas, Ang
Namgel Sherpa and Lakpa Thundu Sherpa,
again in 2009 and 2010, on two successful
bids to reach the summit. (Many
members of the Sherpa ethnic group have
the last name “Sherpa.”)
Fiennes giving the keynote speech at the opening ceremony for Kobold’s facility in Kathmandu
Kobold’s
Himalaya watch,
assembled in
Nepal
Fiennes, dismayed at the danger the
two guides faced in their jobs, suggested
that Kobold teach them, and other Sherpas,
a safer, and more lucrative, way to
make a living: watchmaking.
Kobold did. A watchmaker himself,
Kobold launched a training program at
Kobold’s facility in Pittsburgh, in which
two or three Sherpas at a time – Namgel