Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Few Minutes with Michael Kobold


Courtesy of Kobold
James Henderson - What was your first watch, was it a gift?  Is there a story behind it?

Michael Kobold - My very first watch was a Swatch.  I was seven years old, my family was aboard a Lufthansa flight en-route to San Francisco, which was the starting point for a summer-long tour of the Pacific Northwest.  My parents surprised me with this very simple black Swatch with a white dial.  I loved that watch and it lasted several years until one day our family dog chewed it to bits and pieces.



JH - When you were a boy, what did you want to be "when you grew up"?

MK - My childhood ambitions were simple.  I wished to day be a race car driver.  To this end, my uncle Hans-Peter presented me with a super-fast go-cart on my tenth birthday.  This gift, too, ended up in bits and pieces after a few years, owing to my mechanical curiosity and unsupervised use of my dad's tool box.


JH - Where did you go to school, what did you study?

MK - After graduating from the Frankfurt International School (FIS) in Oberursel, Germany, my family sent me to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where I studied economics.  At first, Pittsburgh wasn't my favorite place in the world, because for young people there really isn't a lot to do.  But in time I grew to love it and decided to maintain a base there after graduating from university.


JH - How did you get started in the watch industry?

MK - During my time at FIS I had befriended Gerd-R. Lang of Chronoswiss, the Munich-based watch company.  We just got a long and I always admired him for his style, both design-wise and in business. He was the perfect mentor and with a lot of patience endured many endless question-and-answer sessions, during which I learned more than I ever learned at university.  If I had to pick a time in my young life that I enjoyed the most, I would have to say it was the time I spent with Gerd-R. Lang.


JH - Although Carnegie Melon is a world-class university, Pittsburgh is not at the top of most people's list of destinations, and now with more than a few years of success under your belt, why stay there?

MK - Relationships.  When I started the Kobold Watch Company, it was only a class project in Professor Jack Roseman's entrepreneurship class.  When I submitted my business plan, Professor Roseman shook his head and said it would never work because it was "just a hobby."  To this day, Professor Roseman serves as an advisor to me and to the company, and like him I have several other Pittsburgh-based friends who are instrumental in the success of Kobold watches.  Thus, I have decided to keep the company in this region.


JH - So now a few years on, ever wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweats?

MK - Yes, when I think I forgot to turn on the alarm system at home.  Before I had a daughter, I never had an alarm and I often didn't even lock the front door.  Now we have an alarm system, two dogs, and two Sherpas from Nepal to keep Victoria safe.


JH - Did you ever consider doing something else?

MK - Before I started the watch company, I used to be an assistant instructor for tactical driving courses. That was my platform to entering the motorsports field.  But Mr. Lang's suggestion to start a watch company as part of my university studies put a stop to that pretty quickly.  There is also something to be said for chocolate-making.  I have often toyed with the idea of manufacturing really good chocolate.  But since eating chocolate is something I love, that would be counter-productive from a health standpoint!


JH - What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced with Kobold?

MK - The hardest thing has been to convince people abroad that American-made does not equal shoddy quality and poor craftsmanship.  We make better watches than a lot of our foreign competitors and we use mostly U.S.-made parts.  We control that quality very carefully and I certainly would not put my name on the dial of an inferior product.



JH - Realizing that it is difficult, but do you have a favorite "child" when it comes to what you have designed?

MK - There are times when I prefer one watch over another, but that changes and a few months later I might prefer the other one again.


JH - Who else out there is making watches that interest you?

MK - Chronoswiss makes amazing watches, Omega is reinventing itself and has come out with some incredible pieces, and I admire Vacheron Constantin a lot for what they've done.  In the States, the only company other than Kobold that has done a good job is RGM... I am proud of Roland Murphy for his tourbillon, even though I had nothing to do with it.  He is to be commended for sticking with his guns. 
Courtesy of Kobold



JH - If you weren't doing this, what do you think you might be doing?

MK - For the last few years I have been trying to finish writing a book and I hope soon I'll be able to take some time off again and concentrate on bringing that long process to an end.  I enjoy writing, but life often gets in the way.


JH - What is a typical "day in the life" of Michael Kobold?

MK - Customer service still takes up a lot of time, luckily.  There was a period when I was more removed from the customer service end and I detested it. It felt alienating.  Then there is all the legwork involved in creating a new timepiece, which is fun and very rewarding.  Expedition planning also takes up a fair chunk of my day and at the moment Ran Fiennes is working on a new endeavor that is both exciting and unique, but I can't give out details yet.  The Kobold motto is Embrace Adventure and I try to live by that mantra as much as possible.

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