Mainspring lives and breathes on nerding out about specific types of watches and the micro and independent houses of horology which create them. We have a certain obsession for tool watches of the ultra-utilitarian type—sans polished surfaces and fancy dial furniture as one famous YouTuber would put it—as they are the best formulations of purpose-driven timekeeping devices we so passionately adore. However, once in a while, we let ourselves explore more refined time-measuring instruments which do show light-reflecting finishes, a little extra design umph, whilst they remain situationally capable and overall well equipped. As most everybody does, we’re also on the search for the reasonably-priced equivalent of certain famous Swiss tool watches which made us dream for many moons of daring adventures or fulfilling daily lives. You know, the do-it-all and looks-good-in-every-situation diver or chronograph celebrities, cool people, and debonair explorers wore and wear—and why not us as well. 

In our horological searches we came across one particular brand multiple times, Maen, which excels at purveying watch enthusiasts and collectors with fine examples of well-rounded, visually sound, and value-driven tool watches everyone of which should have, or will, make its way into your personal collection. For example we gushed over the Skymaster 38 MKIII.MCT M6.2.1, the Brooklyn 36 Triple Calendar, and the Lunor Classic 36 Sophie reviewed a while back, amongst a few others. Amongst the others is the Hudson 38 the third generation of which did make its way to my personal collection and the fourth iteration of which I reviewed in 2022. Debuted in 2018, the Hudson 38 is now eight years old and four years separate the last two generations. A few years during which Maen has been extremely busy churning out other fine collections and thinking about how to improve what was already a very good dive watch to begin with in 2018. Spoiler alert: the MK5 is just about perfect according to yours truly.

Specifications 

What we are passionate about therefore is tool watches, what they historically did for mankind and what they represent now for folks like you and I with a serious penchant for mission-ready and purpose-driven timekeeping devices. You might have entered the fascinating and overwhelming world of horology by way of a tool watch for you were attracted by its versatile nature and chameleon-like appearance (should you have found one whose design resonated with your inner soul.) These kinds of watches are so darn cool because they were historically the one machine one could wear everyday and everywhere and not worry whether or not it could handle whatever one did. Repel down a cliff by the French Riviera? Got it. Drive the Aston Martin down to the Met Gala? Got it. Shove heavy grocery bags in the trunk whilst holding the baby? Got it. They were the perfect stereotypical grab-and-go timekeeping devices which we could actually build memories with because they were designed to be legible and agile and engineered to be robust and reliable. 

Nowadays it seems difficult to find this particular type of watch as brands either homage the shit out of iconic Swiss models, too heavily focus on creating hype by coming up with new ways of telling the time or new rare materials, or step onto the wannabe luxury podium to have a seat a the big table. What happened to honest and elegant tool watches? They have been forgotten for the most part which is why I’m telling you about the Maen Hudson MK5 today as it represents a type of micro-horology which has gotten out of style in just a few years but which I assume many of you are looking for still. The goodness of this watch therefore first comes from its perfectly average dimensions: 38mm in diameter, 47mm lug-to-lug, 11mm thick sans the crystal (13.6mm with it according to my calipers,) and a 20mm lug width. These are excellent dimensions for any diver regardless of its depth rating and the latter remains impressive on the Hudson 38—300 meters which makes this watch more than appropriate for rig and navy divers who have style. 

And the point of making several versions of the same model is to continuously improve it to either offer better value or simply a better watch. Mean opted for both actually as this sucker will set you back 1,088€ (VAT included) on the five-link bracelet presented here or $1,305 USD which is, in 2026, a reasonable amount of money to pay for what you get: now a LaJoux-Perret G100 caliber (4Hz/68 hours of power reserve) upgraded from a Ronda R-150 on the MK4, a polished ceramic bezel inlay mounted on a crisp unidirectional 120-click bezel, a boxed-domed sapphire crystal complete with several layers of inner anti-reflective coating, X1 SuperLumimova on the hands, hour markers, and now bezel pip, and a five-link bracelet equipped with quick-release spring-bars, screwed links, and a new glide-lock-style tool-less micro-adjustment mechanism integrated within a redesigned and re-engineered double-trigger deployant clasp. (I counted eight positions of micro-adjustments by the way.) And as we’ll see, there is more than meets the spec sheet. 

Design

Yes, there is, and so much of it. From a technical perspective we now know that the Maen Hudson MK5 is highly capable and compact, 13.6mm in total thickness for a 300m diver equipped with a vintage-like tall piece of sapphire is rather impressive. But what is more interesting and a bit peculiar about the fifth generation of Maen’s only diver is the subtle design changes it operated onto the eight-year old collection which are subtle and mostly located onto its outer shell. It’s as if the Dutch-born Swedish brand understood back in 2018 that they had pretty much nailed the design of the dial but that the case needed a bit more love and perhaps maturity from the two co-founders whose attention has zigzagged between multiple collections in the past few years. Just like the more reviews I write about a more diverse pool of watches, the more experience I acquire, the more collections Maen designs and engineers, and the more manufacturing partners it works with and feedback it collects, the better the brand becomes at making exceptional watches. 

The changes it made to the case are indeed subtle but not so much so if you’ve intimately handled previous generations of the Hudson 38. For one, the mid-case is very different as it was slab-sided, taller, brushed and adorned with polished chamfers on the fourth generation and now is thinner, fully polished, and deprived of chamfers for a cleaner and more classic (not to say timeless) appearance. In both generations the mid-case remains pretty much straight (flat) however now it permits the case-back to show its face just a bit a la Rolex Bubble Back from the 1950s. The 6.8mm unguarded screw-down crown seems to be unchanged as it was perfect on the previous iteration, however the bezel went through a serious and intricate redesign: a narrower bezel inlay now made of polished ceramic (up from a brushed aluminum one), fully graduated still but now with a lumed pip*, and a wider and flatter bezel assembly with a larger and more aggressively knurled section which overhangs the case for easier operation. As I said, subtle yet major changes. 

*I borrowed a prototype which lived through a few fairs and is missing the lumed dot. 

Since the brand’s two co-founders had indeed nailed the dial design in 2018, it is the part of the watch which has seen the least amounts of changes over the years, though it remains a delight to see and read on the daily. The skyscraper hour and minute hands are still present and even more delightfully polished, and each of the perfect length—the tip of the hour hand nearly rubs against the rectangular and fully polished applied hour markers whilst the minute hands reaches the inner frontier of the minute track printed on the steep rehaut. The latter seems to be intact from the fourth generation. The date aperture is still at the three however the printing of the date numerals is crisper and comes with a glossy finish which makes the numerals pop from the white date disc, and the aperture is finely beveled to look purposeful and rightfully present. Thus the biggest change is the rougher finish of the dial texture which is similar to that found on the third generation which I preferred as it makes everything else stand out more intensely from it. 

The Heart of the Matter

With a brand like Maen one can expect a continuous flow of improvements over the years for each new generation of its core collections it outputs which few micro and independent houses of watchmaking bother with. Whilst the Hudson MK4 retailed just below $1,000 USD in 2022, the MK5 retails a little about this ever-so-important price bracket on the five-link bracelet. This is a fair amount to pay for for what you get as you will be able to sport a remarkable underwater exploration tool watch, one which is endowed with a great deal of personality, a noticeable yet elegant wrist presence, and a holistic suite of specifications few other divers can claim to be equipped with at this price point anywhere on the  market. What also makes the Huson 38 so interesting (to me at least) are the multiple changes it was given, from the case and bezel redesign, an improved dial texture, as well as the addition of drilled lugs which indicates that Maen has double-downed on this model’s intended purpose-driven nature whilst refining its overall appearance. 

It is a strange and peculiar line to step on—to make a watch more elegant and dressy whilst improving the bezel grip and its strap-monster nature—which I would say Maen was right to go bold about as it did it right. In other words, Maen is very unique in the watch world today as it concocted its own recipe to make bold moves dressed in elegant metal clothing as with each new collection, and subsequent iteration of existing collections, it pushes the boundaries of value and the frontier of design whilst never going overboard into the strange and bizarre. 

Conclusion

If you’re read other reviews of Maen watches here or elsewhere you already know that each of the brand’s collections comes in multiple versions and with several options for fastening systems. Indeed, the Hudson 38 MK5 comes in four versions and each can be had on one of three wrist-securing apparatuses: the black dial/date/red accents M1.1.5 (my favorite;) the blue dial/date M1.1.6 we reviewed today; the black dial/no-date/monochromatic M1.1.7; and the blue dial/no-date M1.1.8. For straps: a black FKM rubber strap which will set you back 958€/$1,148 USD; the five-link bracelet for 1,088€/$1,305 USD; and a jubilee-style bracelet for 1,058€/$1,268 USD. I think this covers pretty it all. 

Thanks for reading.