I've read this a few times, but I feel there are some discrepancies between your description and your code. Both of them drift between handling things at the individual object versus multiple object level. Especially the fact that you have/want a single timer, but you trigger(i) towards the indivual i object's level. For discussion sake the two opposing options. Would any of these work and if not, please elaborate on your goal.

Option 1 - if the mouse is over one or more object for a specific amount of time, trigger something globally

1. boolean arrayMouseOver;
2. 
   
3. void draw() {
4.   // set global boolean to false
5.   arrayMouseOver = false;
6.   for (int i = 0; i < circle.length; i++) {
7.     circle[i].update();
8.     if (circle[i].over) {
9.       arrayMouseOver = true;
10.     }
11.   }
12.   // over at least one and perhaps more objects
13.   if (arrayMouseOver) {
14.     // here the timer value is not updated (see below)
15.     // after the trigger time has passed...
16.     // it will be updated and the trigger function will be called
17.     if (millis() > newTimer + (trigTime * 1000) ) {
18.       newTimer = millis();
19.       trigger();
20.     }
21.   // not over any object => timer is continuously actualised
22.   } else {
23.     newTimer = millis();
24.   }
25. }

Option 2 - if the mouse is over this object for a specific amount of time, trigger something in this object

1.   for(int i = 0; i < circle.length; i++) {
2.     circle[i].update();
3.     if(circle[i].isOver()) {
4.       if(millis() > circle[i].newTimer + (trigTime * 1000) ) {
5.         circle[i].trigger();
6.         circle[i].newTimer = millis();
7.       }
8.     } else {
9.       circle[i].newTimer = millis();
10.     }
11.   }

Hey Amnon, thanks for the reply. Yes, the 2nd Option was what I was looking for exactly... thanks for the help, and sorry for not being more clear...