Meet the most famous watch dealer on the planet,
Nico Leonard.
He's best known for roasting celeb watches,
selling multi-million dollar time pieces,
and being the most subscribed watch expert ever.
But, it wasn't always this way.
Today, I want to understand what makes Nico tick.
This means diving into his background,
his businesses, and his deepest insecurities.
This is a story you don't want to miss a second of,
as you've never seen him open up like this before.
- [Nico] This is something I haven't digged in.
- [Mark] Mmm.
- In many years, if you know what I mean, so.
- [Mark] So let's wind his rags to riches story
back to the beginning.
Now as I understand it, you were brought up in Amsterdam
and you moved to Ireland.
So, what initiated that big move?
- A change in life.
I needed a change in life, desperately.
Being unhappy, being lost, just a change of scenery,
change of friends.
I wasn't rolling in the right circles,
and I wanted to achieve something in my life.
I just wanted to be happy and, and I wasn't.
- So what was the dream?
- I had the opportunity to prove myself
in Northern Ireland playing football.
I moved to Northern Ireland,
packed everything I had, but unfortunately,
I broke my ankle in literally my first month.
- So your dreams came shattering down there.
So how did that feel mentally, I mean,
that puts a big void in your life.
- I was devastated.
Achieving, becoming a footballer, though,
that was my main goal. It was all I knew.
I wasn't doing well at school, I don't have any diplomas.
That's all I wanted to do.
And that's all I did when I was younger.
I didn't achieve it. I let my parents down.
And I've lived with that for many years after.
My parents gave up everything for me,
to clear the road so I can play football,
and I can maybe even make it a job.
I remember my first surgery on my left knee.
It was just a simple surgery, you called a meniscus surgery.
You drill three holes to do a camera,
and fix whatever they fix, and over with.
We all thought that was it.
But all of a sudden, listen, "The first surgery...
"we found the problem, and we couldn't fix it."
And it's like, "Oh, okay, talk to me, how do we fix it?"
They're like, "We'll have to reconstruct your entire knee,
"and this and that."
And it's like, "But like, what does that mean?
"What does that mean?"
It meant that I had, like, 5 or 10% chance
to play football again.
That's the first time I've ever seen my father cry.
That was rough. That was rough at that time.
I have never experienced pain in my life like it. Right?
If you're ever in a moment of absolute desperation,
ask yourself this question, "God, if you exist,
"show yourself, because now I need you the most."
Fuck; don't put that shit on camera, please, but.
Fuck you. (both laugh)
- But the thing is, at 17 you're not equipped
to be able to deal with these emotions, are you?
- No - That's the trouble.
- This is something I haven't digged in
in many years, if you know what I mean, so, wow.
I don't know if I told myself this.
I don't know if I fell asleep.
I don't know, whatever it is,
because I always tried to look at things very rational,
black and white.
But damn right I had a period where I had no pain.
Hell to break me in that way, like, fuck me.
(rhythmic music)
- Can you see the ball, or what?
- Yeah, come on.
(sound of foot kicking ball)
- Ball's in net. (both cheer)
(inaudible conversation)
(rhythmic music continues)
(inaudible comments)
(sound of foot kicking ball)
- Price & Pinion and the watch business as it is today,
is the first time I actually succeeded in life.
After everything I've done,
I didn't do well at school, in anything I've ever done,
In every job I've ever had, I got fired.
- Do you have a problem with authority?
- Yes. Significantly. Yeah. Yeah.
And I'm always late, as well.
- Yeah. I mean, I have a similar problem
with being bossed around at work,
and I think we resigned in a similar way.
I mean, I literally had enough and I went,
"That's it, I'm going. There's my notice I'm off."
And I think you had a similar situation.
- I remember me driving into the office,
and you need to go into the basement,
because the parking, you park up.
And I remember opening the door,
and I stepped outta the car,
and I knew it when I looked around,
that this was gonna be the last time I was gonna be here.
It's really weird.
And I resigned there and then.
within 15 minutes I jumped back in the car.
(rhythmic music)
- At this door, here, guys, look at it,
it's a solid door.
- [Nico] {indistinct} for tomorrow.
- Can't even move it.
Wow.
- So what you see here is basically everything
from about a thousand pounds upwards to a half a mil
to even further than that.
From extremely rare vintage
to really, really cool quirky watches.
Everything you see is watches that I really, really love.
And that's what I want to display, watches that I love,
that's the watches I wanna sell.
That's why I don't sell certain brands.
I refuse to sell certain brands,
because I just don't like them.
Yeah. It's passion above profit. That's how I approach it.
(theme music)
- So you didn't have a job, you didn't have any plans.
What was your first move?
- Funny enough, in any of my companies that I have,
I've never written a business plan.
I just knew, I just wanted to go into the watch world.
I always, I'm obsessed with watches,
and I fixed and repaired watches as a side hustle,
making a few quid.
But, how do you make money with watches?
And that's literally, literally where I looked at.
I can either go ahead with repairing and fixing watches,
but I'm not making really good money,
not good enough to maintain myself.
Let's try sellin' then.
- So what was the first watch you bought and sold?
- Tudor Pelagos, Breitling Navitimer,
and a Rolex Datejust, reference number 1 1 6 2 3 4.
Black dial.
- So straight in.
- Straight in no kissing.
- No plan B.
- If you give yourself the slightest possibility
that you have a safety net, or there's an exit,
then you'll never, ever push yourself to the limit. Never.
- Well, selling one or two watches is one thing,
but scaling that, how did you bridge the gap?
- I got a lot of help, a lot of incredible people.
I'm a foreigner in a country that isn't mine
selling watches in the boot of my car.
I mean,
- That's mad, isn't it?
- That's fuckin' mad.
I don't get why people actually trusted me at the time.
I wouldn't have.
Like, a guy that no one knows who are you.
I could have easily swapped it for a fake one.
That's not me.
In my small way, I wanted to make a small impact
on the watch industry.
- So how does it feel to have this vault here
with this massive collection of watches in it?
- It is a really, really special feeling.
I'm not very often in the shop anymore
but to give you an idea,
when I started my business and when I got the shop fitted,
and it cost me about 26 or 25,000 pounds
to fit the store up,
and that was the last money I had at the time.
I didn't really have any watches,
because I had to sell everything to build the shop.
I sat here on that chair for two and a half years,
every single day, at eight o'clock sharp til six o'clock,
every single day, including a Sunday,
to just try to sell some watches.
And the funny bit is, I didn't even have a card machine.
I've sat on that chair for two and a half years every day,
no daylight, nothing.
Just to build the business to where it is now.
It's unbelievable, aye?
- It's great, isn't it?
- Ah.
- So what's the most expensive watch you've ever sold?
Because that's gotta put you on such a high, as well.
- The most expensive watch
that my team and myself have ever sold
was 7 million US dollars.
- 7 million dollars.
So was that one lump sum?
Here's a watch, here's $7 million.
- No, it was different.
It was, "Here's the money, here you have the watch."
- In reverse?
So you always mention your team, and you are very
respectful of those. - Yeah.
- Why couldn't you have made it on your own?
- You're only as good
as the people you have around you, right?
And I have incredible people around me, right?
And genuinely, to scale a business,
no one can ever scale a business alone.
It's impossible.
You can have an idea, you can have visionary,
you're not a superhuman, right?
I am not very good in organizing things.
I am most probably the most chaotic person on the planet.
But if I commit to something, I do it,
and I will finish that job.
Why I wouldn't be able to do it without my team is because
everyone has his qualities.
- Well, I think the mark of a good businessman
is to recognize someone that can do something
better than yourself. - [Nico] Oh.
- And as soon as you get to that stage,
you keep recognizing parts of your business
that can be done better by someone else.
- Yeah, exactly.
Hi. Hello. (staff/Mark greet each other)
- [Nico] Stephanie, meet Mark.
- [Stephanie] Hello.
- [Nico] Ashley, meet Mark. - [Mark] Hey Stephanie.
- [Stephanie] Nice to meet you.
- [Mark] Ashley, did you say, yes?
- [Ashley] Yes, hi.
- [Nico] This is where the magic happens.
Admin, office, my personal aide,
and all sorts of things are being arranged here.
- I mean, that's a job, isn't it, organizing him?
(Stephanie laughs and makes inaudible remark)
- [Nico] That's a nightmare.
- I love the mural on the wall.
- [Nico] Brilliant, isn't it?
So, this is the Amsterdam Marina.
This is a surprise.
This was Steven's surprise whenever we moved in.
A bit of home.
It's a bit of home, and a pitch I was supposed to play.
- [Mark] More magic.
- [Nico] James, all those photos that you see on Instagram.
These beautiful fuckin' photos, that's James.
So everything is taken - Nice to meet you, James.
- [Nico] James, this is Mark. (James greets Mark)
- [Mark] Nice to meet you.
So the pictures obviously are the aid to selling,
aren't they, without a good - Exactly.
- Without a good photographer, you'd be no where, would it?
- Exactly.
- [James] That's what I like to say.
- [Nico] Exactly. (Mark laughs)
- So everything was going well.
So was it plain sailing from there on?
- Not really, no.
- Tell me about it.
- COVID hit, COVID changed my life.
- [Country Official] The coronavirus is the biggest threat
this country has faced for decades.
Close all shops. You must stay at home.
- Our business stopped, mate.
No one was buying nothing.
I didn't know what to do. I was panicking.
I took half my stock, and sold as big, big losses.
I gave up on my company on the first week of lockdown.
I gave up.
I just gave up.
I was done.
I failed. I failed again.
I'm a disappointment, again.
- That's lived with you for a long time,
this disappointment thing.
- Yes. Yeah.
- Not being good enough.
Fighting, - Not being good enough, no.
That's my entire life.
I always had the feeling I had to fight,
and I always had the feeling I had to prove myself.
After a week of feeling sorry for myself,
(ambient sentimental music)
I just manned up.
And the first thing I did is I called Steven,
the manager at Goldsmiths.
"Steven, I know we talked about this for a very long time,
"and I always joked about, but I'm dead serious.
"Are you joining my business?
"And I don't know if I can afford you.
"But are you joining my business?
"Because I can't do this alone,
"I can't save this ship alone.
"I can't save this ship, this sailing ship,
"that is now floating somewhere without any direction.
"I can't save this myself. I need your help.
"There's a quarter of a million here on this bank account
"with all the shit I've sold, right?
"It's gonna be a risk, and I'm not gonna promise anything.
"But it's basically do or die."
From that moment we started thinking,
how can we, how can we do this?
We need to fix the website.
We need to fix this.
- So what started the YouTube journey?
- The fact that we needed an alternative way of marketing.
We needed a different way of marketing.
We needed to save the business,
because that bank account, that quarter of a mil
was going down very, very fast.
- And starting YouTube for an older chap isn't the easiest
thing in the world to do, is it?
I know from experience. - Are you calling me old?
- Are you calling me old, here?
- Well, I'll call myself a young 55, so that's about 45.
I'll call you an older 35, so that makes you 45.
So I reckon we're on a level here.
- Oh right, fair enough, fair enough.
- But it's quite a daunting thing, isn't it,
starting a YouTube channel?
- It saved my life, it saved the business,
and it gave everyone a job today.
- [Logan Paul] Oh my God, this is so official.
- [Nico] It's a yacht, dang.
Nothing against China.
Oh, we got a hundred K.
(laughing)
Caffeine is good for me.
Ah! (screams) Film as much as you want.
It's my baby.
I will get a tattoo.
Hey, very good Morning from California.
(laughing and screaming)
Subscribe.
(electronic fast forward sound)
- You found a niche
where you roast celebrities about their watches
and watch collections.
Have you ever had any kickback from that?
- Recently, I did for the first time, yes.
Funny enough, I got my first lawsuit.
Wow, brilliant. - Did you enjoy opening that?
- I'm actually laughing
my balls off - I was just gonna say,
did you laugh at it or did you cry,
because it's one or the other normally?
- No, I laugh at it for the simple reason
that the person that sues me
is not even in a title of the video
or it's not even about this person,
that just was really funny.
But you know what,
whenever you have a bit of success in life,
people will try and grab it.
Other people will try and get some of that success from you.
The only thing is,
this guy is going to get absolutely nothing.
(laughs)
- The more money you have,
the more people are trying to grab a bit of it.
- Yeah. Yeah.
This is me being an absolute fuckin' amateur, right?
- You forgot the keys.
No, I lost a remote to that garage, that door.
And I can't find it for the life of me.
It'll turn up.
- Absolute legendary car.
You know, this car seems some tarmac,
I drove this to the south of Spain from Belfast.
I drove this to Monaco from Belfast.
This car has been through most of Europe.
- This is a true "Grand Tour," isn't it?
- True "Grand Tour," and a true Ferrari, as it should be,
a v12.
- Well, it's a lovely machine.
You've also got a G-Wagen, if I understand.
Aye, the G-Wagen, G-63.
Unbelievable car. - What a beast.
- It's just like, noise.
- So you're currently the most famous watch expert
on the planet. What's life like now?
- You know what?
Fame is the biggest drug in the world, by a mile.
Now, I have no experience with cocaine.
- I was gonna ask that, actually.
(both laugh) - I have no experience
with cocaine.
I have experience with, - So, this is natural you.
- Aye, this is natural me, but,
it is the biggest drug that I know of.
It's given me so much confidence,
confidence I've lacked 99% of my life.
It's given me a purpose.
It's given me, it's given me a voice.
Something I always felt I never had.
So, that's how it feels. It feels incredible.
And yes, I'm incredibly grateful for that.
- So I guess the follow up question is,
"Where'd you spend your money?"
- I had a period,
when I first started making some real good money,
I had a period where I bought all sorts of designer clothes,
and private jets, and all sorts of things.
I was really living that lifestyle, but you know what?
I had to do that.
- To get it outta your system.
- To get it outta my system, right?
And this is how important your surroundings are.
My surroundings literally pulled me out of it.
The people that I have around me, and Johnny, and Steven,
and my missus, everyone said, "Wise up, Nico." Right?
"Spending 20 grand to go to the Netherlands on a private jet
"where you can get an easy jet, wise up."
Now I'm spending money on wiser things.
- Such as?
- Stephen really got me back involved in football, right?
Stephen had this idea to sponsor of football club,
a northern Irish premiership football club, called Larne FC.
Life goes in mysterious ways.
- Well, I always think you can't leave a passion
in the past. - No.
- Because when you've been so passionate about something,
it's gonna crop up later on.
- Yeah.
- Which it has with you.
- That fear that I always had in me was slowly going away.
All of a sudden I start to meet the players as a sponsor,
and I felt the dressing room again, something I missed
for so many years.
Like, being in a dressing room with your boys,
even if you play Sunday League,
- All the banter.
- That is, that's just special.
I just felt like I was part of something.
(ambient music)
- It's pretty cool, isn't it?
- It's unreal, mate, unreal.
I wanna have fun and bring passion,
bring my passion into football,
and try to make a small impact and add value.
Add value to the community.
Add value to Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland as a country.
Northern Ireland as a league.
Add value is the key.
- Were all the sacrifices you made along the way worth it?
- Every bit of misery, every tear, every sacrifice,
every pain, everything has brought me to where I am now.
This is maybe a really stupid question,
but have you ever stood in front of a mirror butt naked
and looked at yourself like you're a fuckin' piece of shit?
That moment when you stare into that mirror,
when you feel so unhappy,
there is not a moment in life
where someone feels worse than that. A hundred percent.
Because the only person that you should love
is yourself first.
If you don't even love yourself,
how can you expect to love someone else?
- Well, you've certainly made an impact.
- Fuckin' right. (chuckles)
Yeah, I think so, yeah. Yeah.
(sentimental music)
I just wanted to sell watches in Belfast,
just out of the small, first outta my car,
then out of a small shop.
Never in my life did I think
that I would even be remotely close to where I am today.
I think that there's not a single person
in the watch world that doesn't know my name.
It's a bit,
- A bit humbling?
- It's special.
I'm living further than my dream has ever reached.
It's crazy.
(sentimental music fades out)