REC Watches Turbo PurpleNeon
The TURBO PurpleNeon is a Swiss-made timepiece inspired by the vibrant spirit of ‘Turbo era’ cars from the 1980s.
The Turbo Decade
The TURBO craze was a phase in the 80’s which infused everyday road cars with the magical powers of race cars. From no-nonsense family cars to world-beating supercars, ‘Turbo Everything’ was a phrase coined in the industry.
The fuel crises of the 1970’s spurred automakers to spend the development money on precision machining and overbuilt, higher-pressure-tolerant engines to make turbochargers feasible.
A striking TURBO badge embossed across the exterior of the car sold itself – in fact, many automakers sold the infamous badging, but not necessarily the associated turbocharging.
The first real successes in the market were the Mercedes-Benz 300SD and the Saab 900 Turbo in the late 1970’s. With the concept finally proven for passenger cars in the real world, automakers and buyers began to flock to smaller-displacement and fuel-efficient turbocharged cars over the coming decade.
