Constructed in typical Reiden style the heavily-built  R200 displayed careful attention to detail, operator's convenience and fit and finish - and might be regarded as the workhorse of the range, it still being enormously popular today as a fine-quality, reliable, general-purpose lathe. While only the longer-bed versions were available with a full gap, all had a section of the bed near the headstock cut away between the front and back ways to provide a useful increase in capacity on the faceplate - rather in the manner of the French AMC Stima lathes. The rear bed way as positioned not on top but machined into the blackface while the front, conventionally arranged, was protected by an immensely heavy full-length cover usefully engraved with a ruler scale. The front-mounted powershaft was fitted with a boss at the headstock that, ingeniously, carried a "spiral" cut into its outer surface that allowed the carriage, when screwcutting, to be run towards the headstock at high speed and automatically stopped.
Guarded by a swarf cover to protect the operator's hand, a single lever on the apron both selected and engaged the power sliding and surfacing feeds. The screwcutting gearbox was able to produce a useful range pitches: 40 each of Inch and Metric with diametral and Module available, as unusual, by substituting a single changewheel in the drive train.