When I found the paracord strap from yesterday’s post, I was intrigued by the Kobold watch I saw in the promo picture. So, I did some digging, and lo and behold, it turns out to be the 
Kobold Arctic Diver Swiss (the blue second hand tipped me to that model). It looks like Kobold is itself an American company, with design and some assembly occurring in Pittsburgh – although, this particular model is billed as Swiss-made.
The Kobold company (named for it’s founder Michael Kobold) has been around for over 13 years, and limits production (of all models) to a total of no more than 2,500 pieces. This should help to ensure quality, as well as maintain some exclusivity.
Now, back to this Arctic Swiss diver. As you can see from the image, it’s captured the essence of a diver in readable simplicity. Underneath that simple exterior, though, you do have a Swiss ETA movement beating away, so it’s definitely got some solid innards. But, enough prose! On to the specs:
- Case: 46 mm stainless steel (surgical grade); sandblasted (matte) surface finish
- 24 mm lug width
- Crystal: sapphire; domed, anti-reflective (inside only)
- Extra-thick crown screw-locked
- Uni-directional rotating bezel
- WR: 500 m (crown locked) / 30m (crown unlocked)
- Antimagnetic (80,000 a/m)
- Shock-resistant
- Movement: ETA 2824-A2; Swiss-made; winding automatic mechanism jewels 21
- Strap: natural rubber
- MSRP: $3,850
- Options: with / without date
Of course, if you don’t like this exact model, there are two other variants Kobold would be able to offer you – the “regular” Artic Diver for $5,650 with an in-house movement, or the “Heritage” model (again, with the in-house movement) for $6,250. I have to admit, there is something intriguing about the in-house designed movements. The could be interesting to experience, and it is nice to see some competition and variation in the industry. For my money, though, the blue-handed Swiss model is my favorite of the three.
