Maen was founded around 2014 by Joey Lee Vermeulen, a Dutch national living and working in Stockholm, Sweden. The brand operates from Stockholm with a small founder-led team, but the design and operational sensibility carries clear Dutch and broader Northern European influence. The brand name Maen derives from the Dutch word for moon (maan), reflecting the founder's heritage as a clear identity marker. From the start Maen positioned itself as a microbrand producing vintage-inspired mechanical watches at accessible prices, sold direct from the Stockholm operation rather than through conventional retail.
The Maen catalogue centres on references that explicitly draw on mid-20th century watch design vocabulary: the Manhattan (a 38-40mm dress / sport watch with vintage proportions), the Skymaster (a chronograph), the Brooklyn (a smaller dressier reference), and the Hudson (a sport-influenced reference). Each collection includes multiple dial colour and texture variants, and limited dial-colour editions are released periodically with quick sell-out cycles. Movements are Swiss Sellita SW200 automatic and modified Sellita / Soprod variants, with selected COSC chronometer references in the higher-tier collection.
Today Maen produces several hundred to a few thousand watches per year across the Manhattan, Skymaster, Brooklyn, Hudson, and various special editions, all sold direct from the Stockholm website. Pricing remains accessible: EUR 700-1,800 for most references. The brand has built a devoted following in the European microbrand community specifically for the disciplined design execution and the founder-led production model. Maen sits in a similar tier to Lorier and Baltic: small-batch microbrand mechanical watches with strong design identity at accessible prices.
