Nico Leonard has unquestionably one of the loudest voices in the industry, which I mean both literally and in terms of being one of the most prominent figures talking about watches on YouTube and with his brand Pride and Pinion. Now he’s dipping a toe into watch design with his first collaboration with MAEN, together launching the MAEN x Nico Leonard Jump Hour.
Taking the watch out of its box, it’s much more petite than the press pictures and renderings make it appear. While the shape of the tonneau case appears broad and chunky, in the metal it really isn’t. In fact it only measures 34mm at the widest and is only 9.7mm thick. That means on the wrist, it sits more in line with a JLC Reverso or Cartier Tonneau than the other, more famous tonneau watches like Richard Mille’s RMs or a Franck Muller Vanguard.
Though it does feel larger than the numbers suggest due to the almost brutalist wall of metal around the flanks with high, brushed sides and polished bevels. Those sides lead into long, slender lugs that add quite a bit of length to the piece, it has a lug-to-lug of 45mm, which also contributes to it appear bigger than it is. Those lugs in turn lead into the FKM rubber strap, offering comfort and versatility on the wrist, secured in place by a butterfly clasp that feels nice and solid.
Looking to the dial, it’s fairly unusual thanks to the jumping hours display. As opposed to the normal array of hands and peripheral scales, there are two apertures. The first, above the MAEN logo, displays the current hour of the day and changes instantly from one hour to the next – hence the name MAEN x Nico Leonard Jump Hour. The second aperture displays a rotating disc with the minutes. Below that is then the crown logo of Pride and Pinion. One thing to note is the apertures are very small, which does impact readability, it’s as if you’re reading the time through a date window.
There are three versions being produced, each with a different colour dial, though they all share the same sunray brushed finishing. There’s classic black, forest green and vibrant red. Here we have the black edition, with its slick, dressy charm. Of the three I think the green hits the nicest mid-point between the serious black and bombastic red.
Powering the MAEN x Nico Leonard Jump Hour is the ST1721, which is a movement from Seagull. A manufacture you might recognise from being the calibre of choice for Studio Underd0g’s popular big eye chronographs. The ST1721 has a 38-hour power reserve, which is decidedly low by 2025 standards but also the jumping hours complication does take a lot of energy in order to achieve that instant change, so a lower reserve is perhaps expected.
Plus, it helps to keep the watch accessible at €999 (approx. £830) in comparison to a lot of other jumping hour watches. Those other jumping hours that come to mind being extremely haute watches like the Andersen Genève Jumping Hours, the Louis Vuitton Convergence or even from here in Britain, the Fears Brunswick Edwardian Hours exclusive to British Watchmakers’ Day.
Price and Specs:
More details at MAEN.
I really like the concept of a jumping hour watch and seriously thinking of buying one, but I feel this watch is more like a unisex style and I would have designed two versions for ladies and gents
Great review.
I do like a nice jump hour watch. Obviously nothing new about this less than usual style of timepiece, they have been around for much longer than most people realise. This one is very reminiscent of the ones that were available back in the 1950’s in terms of size, and reduced visibility of the time read windows, but more up to date in terms of making the watch more durable (the older versions usually had a metal cover with small pierced windows for time definition, which were prone to scratches etc. but, as Michael points out, the small windows on this new version make reading of the time difficult. I personally wouldn’t have chosen a rubber strap for this new timepiece as rubber trends to make your wrist sweat, I would have chosen a man made fabric or faux carbon fibre, but that is is purely my opinion. Overall, a nice looking watch at a good retail price point.
If I were in the market for a jump hour watch, but with more cash to spare (and of course being in the right place at the right time for the very limited edition), my choice would be (to echo that of Michael), the Fears Brunswick Edwardian edition, beautiful watch with a dial that can be more easily read, not to mention exquisite design and elegance.