Meet the watches made from the world’s most sought-after Mustangs

For seven years now, the Danish watch company REC has been treating auto enthusiasts with some very intriguing and unique collections made from recycled parts from some of history’s most evocative machines. Indeed, the brand’s core mantra ‘Recover, Recycle and Reclaim’ has even given birth to exquisite watch models made of vintage cars, including Mini Coopers, Porsche 911s and Land Rovers.

And now, it’s the turn of Mustang fans to get all hot under the collar, as after two years of honing and crafting, REC is ready to introduce the Swiss Made P-51 Little Red and the P-51 Green Hornet to the world. Downscaled to a more accessible 42mm size, these watches honour their organ donors with small design details and a masculine look that could only come from a Mustang.

Read on to discover how these extraordinary watches came to be, and how they honour the proud legacy of the cars they came from.

Discover the range here

2451

Little Red

Little Red is a car with a special place in motoring folklore. It’s a one-off 1967 Prototype Shelby Mustang GT500 EXP. Countless enthusiasts and experts were sure it had been destroyed more than 50 years ago and lost forever – and even more people questioned its existence in the first place.

Little Red was ordered by the legendary race driver and car designer Carroll Shelby, when he came back from Le Mans in 1966 with Ford’s first overall win. Shelby wanted to put the big block engine from the Ford GT40 – with which he had just won Le Mans – into Little Red, making it his R&D experiment, designed to push the boundaries of what was possible.

The car started its life as a GT500 in 1966 but ended its life as a 1968 Shelby. That’s partly why it was never found. Nicknamed ‘Little Red’ for its big-block heart and engine, plus its bright red colour, legend has it the name was a poke at Ferrari after finally beating the Italian manufacturer at Le Mans.

The hunt for Little Red had become a personal quest for car enthusiast and collector Craig Jackson. He put together a dedicated team to find Little Red, and in 2018, his persistence payed off, as it was discovered on 3 March in rural North Texas. Excess sheet metal from the restoration process was donated to REC Watches, which was then built directly into the design of the new generation of Swiss Made limited edition P-51 timepieces.

2450

Green Hornet

The Green Hornet is a legendary one-off 1968 prototype Shelby GT500 EXP and the predecessor to Little Red. It was an experimental styling car with Shelby scoops and a rear spoiler. Both design elements are incorporated into the design of the P-51 Green Hornet timepiece.

The car was given to Carroll Shelby by Ford, who started experimenting on the car with bigger engines and the newest tech that Ford was working with. An electronic fuel injection made the candy apple green Mustang way ahead its time.

At the time, Ford’s policy was to destroy prototype vehicles to avoid them entering circulation. Somehow both Green Hornet and Little Red avoided that fate. Green Hornet was bought by a Ford executive who used it as a daily driver, before he passed it on to his son.

In 2018, the car was bought and fully restored to its former glory by car enthusiast Craig Jackson. In this process, excess sheet metal from the restoration was once again donated to REC Watches and went towards making the stunning limited-edition P-51 timepieces we see today.

REC Watches goes to extraordinary means to find unique artifacts and put these into a brand-new timepiece. The team at REC do it in a way that keeps the patina and they build the watch to represent the vehicle. It just seemed like a good match to have a little piece of Little Red or Green Hornet in people’s watches in a unique, quality timepiece

         Craig Jackson – Car collector and restorer, and CEO of Barret-Jackson auction company

Ready to claim your piece of history? Discover the range here