WatchTime - August 2012

WATCHtalk
and Thundu Sherpa were the first −
would come to Pittsburgh and spend a
year studying watchmaking and luxurywatch
retailing. They would then return
to Nepal, assemble watches there, and
sell them to mountaineers as mementos
of their Everest expeditions. Should the
Sherpas decide to work abroad after their
watchmaking training, they would have a
marketable skill, Kobold points out.
(Many native Nepalese work in other
countries because poverty-stricken Nepal
has so few jobs.)
Namgel and Thundu Sherpa have
now finished their training and are back
in Nepal, assembling and selling watches
at Kobold’s new Kathmandu facility, located
in a high-end shopping area frequented
by international tourists and
mountaineers. More than 200 people attended
the inaugural ceremony for the
store/workshop. Fiennes was the keynote
speaker. The factory’s first fruit is a watch
with a dial made from a rock that Kobold
and Fiennes picked up from the Everest
summit in 2009.
Fiennes and Kobold in the Himalayas
34 WatchTime August 2012
Taking Note
Jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock, who
became famous playing with the Miles
Davis Quintet in the 1960s and went on
to even greater fame in subsequent
decades, has lent his name to a new limited-edition
watch from Vulcain.
The watch is a 50s Presidents model. It
contains the hand-wound Cricket V-16, a
double-barrel movement, with a frequency
of 18,000 vph and featuring the
brand’s famously loud, long (20-second)
alarm. Hancock’s signature appears on
the dial and his name in block letters is inscribed
on the circumference of the caseback.
The watch is 42 mm in diameter.
There are two versions of the watch,
one with a rose-gold case ($21,450) and
one with a steel case ($7,550). Both have
blue, sunray-finish dials and sapphire
casebacks. There will be 50 pieces of the
gold model and 250 of the steel. Each
watch comes with a certificate of authenticity
bearing Hancock’s signature. One of
Hancock’s albums is also included with
the watch.
Herbie Hancock
The caseback, like
the dial, bears
Hancock’s name
The Herbie Hancock limitededition
model in rose gold