Our story
History for your wrist since 2014

 

Originally founded as a passion project between Christian Mygh and Jonathan Kamstrup, our story started in a small Copenhagen apartment in 2014.

Since then it’s been a long, fulfilling and twisty journey, which we have summarized below.

2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023

The idea that would become REC Watches was originally conceived by our founders Jonathan Kamstrup and Christian Mygh years before the brand launched in 2014.

Sharing a passion for all things mechanical, the idea at its core was to create a watch brand which would infuse each and every timepiece with a built-in piece of history as opposed to the “brand history and heritage” so often offered by counterparts in this industry.

With little to zero network, starting capital, or industry experience, the starting years were… chaotic and rough. We were setting out on a steep learning curve, to put it mildly.

Fueled solely by a desire to do things differently, our first timepieces were simple quartz-pieces made with steel from salvaged Morris Minis found in local scrapyards, and designed from rough sketches, called the Mark I and Cooper collections.

On an individual level, none of these initial donor vehicles represented a grand historical narrative, but rather a personal one, as the ownership and anecdotes from each was tracked down and recollected in the accompanying booklet for each watch.

Two major developments occurred in 2015.

On a product level, we quickly realized that while the core concept was appealing, those initial watches were simply not up to par.

Using an online poll, it was determined that the focal point of the next collection would be salvaged Ford Mustang parts, and we teamed up with a world-class Swiss design studio to conceive our first mechanical product offering, the P51 Automatic.

The only challenge was that bringing to market a mechanical timepiece of this caliber was well outside of our financial capacity.

The solution to this challenge was two-fold. During the summer of 2015 we participated in the first season of ‘Løvens Hule’, the Danish TV equivalent to Shark Tank or Dragons Den, and managed to attract investment from four of five investors.

In addition, we wanted to make sure these new – much more premium – timepieces would also be positively received from customers, and decided to launch these timepieces via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform.

Following months and months of preparation, it was nerve wracking to finally go live with the campaign, but lo-and-behold the campaign raised a record breaking 3,2M DKK with backers from more than 30 countries at the very end of 2015.

In 2016 our logo was updated and implemented on the facelifted Mini collections: Mark I, Cooper and newly added Minimalist pieces.

Following the successful P51 Kickstarter campaign, we faced a number of choices in 2016.

The first and most pressing of these was delivering the P51 timepieces to waiting customers.

A completely custom made product, the P51 production was marred by several months of delay, and the final watches were ultimately delivered to customers in July 2016.

At around the same time, the P51 collection was listed by The Wall Street Journal as one of the top-5 watches to own in the sub-$5’000 category.

With the P51 deliveries settled and attention growing, we needed to decide on our path forward.

Returning to our online poll, now with a lot more participants, it was determined that the next iconic vehicle project would center on the legendary Porsche 911, and work on what would become our 901 Collection began.

Our second mechanical series, the 901 collection, was ready to be introduced and delivered in 2017, as we returned to Kickstarter for the second and final time, and even managed to beat the record we had set in 2015.

Following the 901 collection Kickstarter campaign, we once more returned to our online poll to determine the next donor project.

After the success of the P-51 came a tribute to the 60’s original Ford Mustang “Raven Black” color combination; The P-51-04 – was our first dedicated limited edition timepiece.

And for the first time in our brand history our customers wanted to take for the skies, as the Supermarine Spitfire aircraft came out as a clear favourite.

In 2018, with our first Spitfire aircraft collection underway, we also managed to expand our P51 and 901 Collection offerings.

The P51 collection was expanded with the P51 RTR while the 901 collection was expanded with the 901-RS, a black-and-yellow variation of the original 901 collection, this time made from an ultra-rare 1973 Porsche RS.

These first “naturally limited” projects, little did we know at the time, would come to define our approach to watchmaking for the next many years.

Both models were immediately sold out, and we started to learn the degree to which the specific history behind each vehicle was directly tied to its popularity.

The events of 2019 was marked by some key decisions for the brand moving forward, as well as a sequence of events that would turn out to be just-in-time for the looming lockdowns of the global covid-19 pandemic.

Early in the year we had decided to move from Japanese-manufactured mechanical movements to a full Swiss-made production setup. This was no mean task, and required a complete recalibration of our manufacturing setup.

As a result, the year was also relatively quiet in terms of novelties, with just two new variations added to the collection, in the form of the P51 Eleanor and the RJM-04 Bluebird, the fourth and final iteration of our RJM Collection.

Having built a decent-sized distribution network of retailers through the last years, we also renewed our digital presence, re-thinking and re-building our website.

Inspired by the unmistakable RWB styling ethos, the 901 RWB Collection was our final Japanese-movement collection.

Made in collaboration with cult-restomodder Akira Nakai our novelties 901-RWB Stella and 901-RWB Rotana pushed the limits of the 901 Collection, and was a fitting ending to nearly five years of using Miyota based movements.

Later that year, we introduced our first fully Swiss-made novelties, in form of the RNR Collection, made from repurposed Land Rovers.

Still, the year 2020 would not be remembered for our novelties, but rather for the global covid-19 pandemic. The lockdowns that followed from spring, would go on to completely reshape our brands business model.

Luckily, at the time the lockdowns occurred, we were all but finished with a large digitalization effort – and were unknowingly much better prepared for the ensuing retail halt than most.

2021 was an exciting year of storytelling and innovation for us, as we released no less than seven exciting new models.

The first fully Swiss-made version of the P51 was introduced, with the elusive P51 Green Hornet and its counterpart, Little Red, both made from one-of-a-kind Shelby experimental prototype GT500 coupes.

Premiering the TTT Collection, our first two projects made from motorcycles, featured the TTT Escape and the TTT ICON1000, both set in a one-a-kind dual construction case, allowing the wearer to twist the inner case and dial.

Collaborating with California-based Gunther Werks, we further expanded the 901 range with the 901 GW Chelsea and Exoskeleton containing recycled carbon fibre from Gunther Werks’, now set in a fully Swiss-made and updated 901 construction.

The RNR Collection was also expanded with the RNR Arkonik, made in collaboration with UK-based ARKONIK Vehicles from their genesis vehicle “UJO” and widely considered as one of the finest Land Rover restomod manufacturers in the world.

In 2022, we launched an altogether different type of product category, the Core Collection.

A far more affordable line of products, the Core Collection timepieces do not include repurposed materials, instead focusing on mimicking design and material choices on golden ages in automotive history.

Paved forward by the TURBO and TOURER range, the first Core Collection watches were inspired by the neon-lit turbocars of the 80s and the cruisin’ grand tourers of the 60s respectively.

Late in the year we introduced one of our most exciting novelties to date – the SPX DeLorean – a timepiece containing original fragments from John Z. DeLorean’s personal DMC-12 vehicle. The model was immediately sold out.

2023 Marked another exciting year in terms of novelties.

We had long wanted to make another Spitfire aircraft collection, updated to a Swiss-made setup just like we had done with the P51 and 901 Collections.

Acquiring parts from the Mk1a BoB-active Spitfire aircraft X4009, the scene was set to show everything we had learned since our first Spitfire project five years prior. The X4009 Collection was introduced in three distinct color tones just before summer.

Later that same year, the TTT Knievel was introduced, made from none other than Evel Knievels final stuntbike.