Today’s #pendelight is the Omas FPC Limited Edition fountain pen, a pen with significant meaning, and a beautiful sight to behold. I spotted it while browsing pens – a silver sliver of visual delight in the display cabinet.
The Omas FPC was launched in the year 2008, the same year that the worldwide total of personal computers has reached one billion. You can read about the news here on Reuters. This pen was launched to celebrate this milestone. Crafted in treated aluminium, the pen body is silver-coloured and has a smooth feel. It is a limited edition pen and there were 1008 pieces of fountain pens made, with 1000 rollerball pens, making up a total of 2008 pieces – the same number as the milestone year for personal computers.
On the body, there are guilloché engravings. Guilloché is a technique where precise and intricated patterns are engraved onto a material. These patterns tend to be repetitive. According to Omas,
the two front sides give a detail of the design of the first hard disk made in 1956; the clip affixed to these sides represents a stylized form of an abacus used in 1200 AD. The third side shows a detail of the design of the CRAY X1 Supercomputer, created in 2003 and capable of carrying out 52.4 thousand billions of operations a second
— Source: Omas
Very meaningful pen, indeed! As you can see, the whole pen is shaped in a triangular design, characteristic of the Omas’ signature 360 design.
The Omas 360 Celluloid, in Wild Black and White design
This pen is a piston-filler and can hold about 1.2ml of ink.
Piston screw threads
The nib is made of 18K gold and comes in a variety of sizes from EF to B. I do believe that it also comes with that nice velvety brown pen pouch if you purchase a piece!
Overall the pen looks very finely-crafted and futuristic, while combining the elements of modern technology and ancient methods of calculation all in the same pen. It feels solid and sturdy. The only thing is that I didn’t try out the nib and the filling mechanism (that’s why this post is a #pendelight and not a full-fledged review). But I do believe Omas is not going to scrimp on the quality of those parts.
More pictures of the pen to follow:
The abacus-style clip
Greek mathematical calculations on 3 different sides of the pen section
Special thanks to Fook Hing Trading Co. for letting me take pictures of this pen for this feature!
I am the founder of this website.
Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time.
I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty.
This is a very tempting pen, for a Software geek like me! Good review, Maybelline – Thanks.
Glad you liked it, Mike!
Fantastic review of a rare and beautiful pen. The pictures really captured the detail and workmanship that went into it. Thanks for showing it off in just the right light.
Thanks FPD for the kind comments. I’m looking forward to featuring more beautiful pens under my #pendelight series!
Thank you, Maybelline, for your always interesting and engaging blog. I look forward to your posts, and learn quite a bit from them! All the best to you, Susan
Thank you Susan, I’m glad to know that you like reading my blog! Do keep checking back for more posts! 🙂