I’m not much of a follower of the latest trends, these trends come and go and who has the time to keep with them all. One trend that has been around for a long time, a trend I’m actually a fan of, is the up-cycling trend. It’s a different take on recycling, take an old discarded item and turn it into something new.
REC Watches falls into this category, they source old Morris Mini/Mini Coopers and strip them down and use the metal from the cars in their watches. REC is based in Copenhagen Denmark and their motto is “from wreck to REC”. The company currently has three styles of watches: Minimalist, Cooper, and Mark I.
A couple of weeks ago the company sent us a REC Mark I M2 watch for a hands-on review and below is our take on the watch and some pictures.
Ordering the watch through their website is very simple and the shipping is very fast. We confirmed the watch we wanted on Thursday night, the watch was shipped on Friday and I had it on my wrist on Monday. That’s pretty fast shipping, considering it was sent from Copenhagen Denmark to Vancouver Canada.
The watch comes in a small heavy-duty cardboard box, which is also a perfect place to store your REC watch. All the watches come with NATO and a pair of genuine leather straps. The leather strap is soft and very comfortable and gives the watch a dressy look.
The REC Mark I watches come in 44.3 mm wide cases that are 13 mm thick, the cases are made out of stainless steel, with brushed cases and polished bezels. I was afraid the watch might look too big on my wrist, as I like to keep my watches to 42 mm max, but the Mark I didn’t look too awkward on my smaller wrist (my wrist is about 6.5”). I definitely would prefer to wear their smaller watches, the Minimalist measuring 40 mm or the Cooper measuring 42.5 mm. The Mark I is fairly lightweight, weighing only 66 grams, it seems especially light when compared to my mechanical watches (my Omega Speedmaster Pro).
The dials on these watches are hand-made out of metal from old Minis, so each watch has a slightly different dial and therefore you’ll never see another Mark I watch with the exact same dial. Our review watch’s dial had lots of scratches from a metal grinder and a bit of rust, but don’t worry, this is a good thing. The dial is coated with the same material found on the inside of soda cans, so the rust won’t spread. The scratches, or patina, adds to the character of the watch.
The dial is pretty simple with an oval in the middle, housing two sub-dials. This oval is a design element paying homage to the classic Mini’s oval gauge cluster. The sub-dial on the left measures minutes on the chronograph (up to 60 minutes) and the dial on the right houses the 24 hour clock. The dial comes with a pair of Arabic numerals at 6 and 12 o’clock and eight hour indices, with a small circular date window above the 6 o’clock position. The dial is covered with domed mineral glass, giving it a vintage look.
The back of the dial has another unique aspect to it, it shows the VIN (vehicle identification number) of the car the metal was taken from, on our review watch it was VIN: XL2S1N1112358B, and the total number of watches produced from this car, 505 from this car.
The booklet that comes with the watch tells a short history of the Mini and also comes with a photocopy of the registration papers for the Mini that was used to produce this particular watch. It’s pretty cool to see when the car was originally registered, who owned it etc.
The REC Mark I watches are powered by a Miyota 0S21 quartz movements and are water resistant to 50 meters. The Mark I is priced at $425 US before taxes, duty, and shipping. For more information and to order your unique REC watch, visit recwatches.com
REC Watches Mark I M2 Review Photo Gallery
