Tagging along with Mido's 'Robi' in Pavilion KL

Huh? Mido who? What?!

Well, it’s not exactly a ‘what’ but a ‘who’. Then again, are robots considered sentient beings? What not with AI advancing by the minute, isn’t it time we, the human race, begin to recognize the fact that androids deserve some sort of identification or acknowledgement of their existence?

That’s a conversation for another day, methinks.

Back to the topic at hand! Now, if you’ve been following news surrounding Mido, you’d know that 2018 marks the brand’s 100th birthday. With celebrations happening around the world, it’s kinda’ hard to miss it, frankly speaking. Closer to home, Mido Malaysia has embarked on a nationwide tour with its ambassador/mascot, Robi, making his/her/its(?) rounds at several Mido boutiques.

Recently, Centre Seconds was privileged enough to have been invited by the good folks at Mido Malaysia to tag along at one of the many stops Robi made – this one being at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

Hang on… Mido has its own mascot?

Correct, you are. Plus, it’s not a recent thing, as well. ‘Robi the Robot’ was first introduced to the world as Mido’s mascot in the year 1939. Invented by Henri Schaeren, the reason behind Robi’s birth was clear-cut – Mido wanted a symbol to capture the robustness and modernity of its timepieces.

When you really think about, the symbol of a robot does make a whole lot of sense, huh?

Also, I recently discovered that Robi had some sort of a narrative to his/her/its existence. Published between 1951 to 1958, ‘The Adventures of Mido in America’ was one of the many stories that chronicled the journey of Robi.

Here’s another fun fact, ladies and gents. Within the first several years of its debut, “over 100,000 wooden figurines” of Robi would be churned out for children. In fact, Robi was so popular during the early 40s that at its first appearance at Baselworld, over 60k units were distributed.

“So, what was it like strolling around Pavilion with a robot?”

Pretty amusing, I must say. As expected of us humans, whenever something out of the ordinary appears, our first instincts would be to whip out that phone and start Instagram-ing, Facebook-ing, Snapchat-ing, etc. However, the best reactions were the ones from children as half of them didn’t know how to react to Robi and just resorted to staring, mouths agape and all.

If only adults could get away with that amount of eye contact at something/someone.

As a whole, it was a pretty interesting way to get the Mido name out there. Even more so when you consider the fact that Robi called it a day at the Mido boutique which is located on Level 4, Pavilion Elite.

“I see what you did there…”

*nudge nudge wink wink* Yes, indeed. The Mido boutique is worth a stop for any watch geek as they have the latest collections on display. Besides that, the boutique also-

WAIT. Why is there cake? And champagne?! And… is that?

The Tauke from ‘Ola Bola’?!

Local film buffs will immediately recognize JC Chee, the actor who portrayed Chow Kwok Keong/Tauke in the hit 2016 movie. For those not too familiar with the movie, JC’s character was based off legendary Malaysian footballer, Soh Chin Aun.

Not content with a tour of the mall itself with Robi, Mido Malaysia had put together a nice evening in at their boutique replete with cake and champagne.

“… and watches? Please tell me you checked some out.”

Yes, most definitely, yes! Personally, I am most impressed with their Ocean Star line-up. Don’t get me wrong, the Baroncelli models are fine pieces but there’s something about these divers that had me feeling all warm under the collar.

As expected, I didn’t have all the time in the world to really get into the nitty-gritty of these watches so a quick shot here and there was all that I could manage. Perhaps in the near future, Mido Malaysia could consider sending one over for yours truly to review?