The last time Michael Kobold tried to climb Mount Everest, he says, he did it with a week's notice and almost no training. At base camp he cut his hand, a dicey injury for a specialty watchmaker whose craft is in his fingers, and never made it to the summit.

That was last year. Now Mr. Kobold, the Robinson entrepreneur whose hand-made luxury timepieces are favored by the likes of Bruce Springsteen and James Gandolfini, is about to do the climb again. He expects to leave for Katmandu on April 3 and return May 27.

This time, though, he'll have more preparation and a cause.

He's hoping to raise $250,000 for the Navy SEAL Warrior Fund, a nonprofit group that supports wounded or fallen SEALs and their families, in honor of a friend who was injured in Iraq and now uses a wheelchair. So he's working in advance on his physical and mental toughness with some SEALs who've volunteered to help him train on their off hours.

"I'm not a climber," Mr. Kobold said, even though he makes expedition watches like the Polar Surveyor Chronograph, which he intends to wear on the climb. "This is not in my comfort zone.

"As a watchmaker, I sit all day and eat a ton of chocolate, and I like to give up. The SEALs are teaching me endurance, mental toughness and general fitness so I can carry a 40-pound pack up the mountain. I'm learning I can't quit. I have to keep going."

The training is taking place on the SEAL base in San Diego, which Mr. Kobold has been visiting often in recent weeks. But it's strictly unofficial, said Cmdr. Greg Geisen, a Navy special warfare spokesman.

"He befriended a couple of SEALS, and with his interest in extreme training, they had a shared interest on a personal level. They offered for him to come to San Diego to visit, and after-hours they're helping him with some extreme-environment training and mental conditioning."

On Saturday, Mr. Kobold will be talking about his business and his climb at the awards banquet of the McGinnis Venture Competition, a three-day entrepreneurial graduate school contest sponsored by his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, at the Carnegie Science Center.

On his first attempt at Mount Everest, he accompanied explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, a family friend and Kobold watch spokesman, along with a BBC film crew that was working on a documentary about the famed adventurer. Mr. Kobold says they ascended to 21,000 feet, 7,000 feet short of the summit.

Sir Ranulph will be going on next month's trip as a technical adviser and patron. Also going will be Will Cross of Pittsburgh, who has reached the Mount Everest summit once before; British climbing guide Kenton Cool, who led last year's attempt; another BBC film crew, 15 Sherpa bearers and one Sherpa guide.

If all goes as planned, Mr. Kobold hopes to blog about his trip beginning about May 1 at post-gazette.com. To learn more about the climb or make a donation, go to everest-challenge.com.