[[ADVERTORIAL]] Think of minimalistic fountain pens, and the brand name of Lamy is called to mind. The latest fountain pen range that has emerged from Lamy’s Premium trove is the Lamy imporium. Designed by Mario Bellini, the award-winning imporium comes in 3 designs: the Lamy imporium TiPt (titanium matt), Lamy imporium BlkBlk (black matt/black), and the Lamy imporium BlkAu (black matt/gold). This year, the pen has won the iF Design Award in the “Writing Instruments” category. Impeccably engineered from the nib to the clip, the pen features a straight-lined body which is guilloche all around. The section towards the nib has guilloche patterns all the way across the section. The nib itself is a two-tone nib, made of 14K gold across the slit to the tip, and the rest of the nib being PVD-coated (PVD stands for Physical Vapour Deposition). Contrasting the guilloche body is the smooth screw-off cap featuring a glossy clip, either in platinum, gold, or black (PVD). Here are the 3 different models available: Model 093: LAMY imporium TiPt The Lamy imporium TiPt fountain pen has a titanium matt body, refined with PVD. It is accented by a glossy clip made of polished galvanized platinum. It retails in Singapore […]
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Happy Golden Jubilee, Singapore! 9 August 2015 marked the day Singapore turns 50 ever since gaining independence in 1965. For all my fellow Singaporeans and those living in Singapore, I hope you had a blast during the Jubilee long weekend of 7-10 August! To commemorate this exhilarating year, a task force has been set up to support the year-long celebrations, and it’s called SG50. Throughout the island, one can see the SG50 red dot printed on many places, and as you all already know, on fountain pens too. Before we all get back to work and school tomorrow, let’s have a look at which SG50 fountain pens are up and running about right now, and where to get them (if you’re still able to)! Staedtler SG50 Flora and Fauna Limited Edition Fountain Pen Staedtler was the first that I’ve heard which launched an SG50 pen. It features a Crimson sunbird and the Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid, Singapore’s national flower, imprinted on cowhide leather using Staedtler’s innovative inkjet technology. Such a colourful fountain pen, but is limited to only 98 pieces in the country. Check out my #pendelight article about this pen written here. Where to get it (if it’s still […]
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I’ve been desiring a few new pens lately, so I have been snooping around eBay, Amazon, and Aliexpress. Last year, I have made a list of the top 10 bestselling fountain pens on Amazon. Amazon releases a bestsellers list for each product category every hour. As fountain pens are a relatively niche product category, I did not expect the bestseller list to change that frequently, which is why I am only doing a follow-up of it only now. Last year, we saw a number of familiar pens in the top 10 list, such as the Lamy Safari, Jinhao 250, and Pilot Varsity. This year, the top pens still did not change much from the last, so I did a count of the number of times a brand name appeared in the top 100 list of fountain pens on Amazon, to find out which were the bestselling fountain pen brands on Amazon. No. 3 on the list: Jinhao Coming in 3rd on the list is the Jinhao fountain pen brand. Out of 100 bestsellers, Jinhao products take up 21%. Jinhao originates from China and produces a number of good quality fountain pens. Some of their fountain pens, with their low price point, can […]
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The Lamy Logo fountain pen is yet another Bauhaus, industrial-looking pen. The first time I saw it, I thought it reminded me of one of my first fountain pens, the steel Parker Vector. Thanks to Pen Chalet‘s sponsorship, I got a chance to touch and feel this pen, but all opinions in this piece are my own and not influenced by Pen Chalet or anyone else. I have been hoping to get the brushed steel Lamy Logo, but instead received the matt stainless steel one. The brushed one reminds me a bit of the stainless steel Lamy 2000, with a more special and elegant look to it, while the matt one looks a little more “raw”. It was interesting to unbox the pen. When you slide the box out of the cardboard covering, it looked like two cuboids of plastic stuck together. The mechanism of opening the box was also interesting – First, you push the two sides of the box apart in the directions of the arrows: It reveals a platform inside, on which the pen is supported via a rest… … then you open the other side of the box and voila, the whole platform is exposed, as […]
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Lamy’s flagship pen is the Lamy 2000. The Lamy 2000 is a pen that I have been lusting after for the longest time ever. It is not a new pen, having existed since 1966, but I have only gotten to know of it when the stainless steel Lamy 2000M was launched in the year 2012, which drew my attention to the classic Lamy 2000 fountain pen. The Lamy 2000 was designed by Gerd Alfred Müller, a German industrial designer well known for designing Lamy products and Braun electrical equipment. In fact, he even won multiple awards for designing Lamy pens, and in particular, his Lamy 2000 won him the International Forum Design Award in 1978. He was involved in the Bauhaus movement, which combines artistic and industrial elements in a design, and this explains why the Lamy 2000 fountain pen looks like this: At the time when Müller created the Lamy 2000, he used a special material called the Makrolon®, which is polycarbonate and a registered trademark of Bayer. The pen body has a very nice brushed effect which is what attracted me in the first place! The Lamy 2000 comes also in sleek stainless steel, which I also find very attractive, but this […]
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If you’re a fan of the Lamy Al-Star range of fountain pens, you may be pleased to know that the 2015 colour will be a nice, vibrant Copper Orange! Lamy releases a new colour every year for their Safari range of pens, including the Al-Star, which has an aluminium body instead of the Safari’s plastic. I got my first Al-Star in black-purple which is really more of a magenta-type colour, and this was one of my first “serious” fountain pens when I started my fountain pen hobby. Here a link to my review and comparison between the Lamy Al-Star and Lamy Vista, its transparent counterpart. I thought I made an excellent choice picking the black-purple colour. (And hey, the last I’ve checked, this is also the colour being featured on the Lamy Al-Star webpage!) The Lamy Al-Star was a later release after the highly popular Safari pens. It comes so far in pretty limited colour choices, even tending more towards the cool colours (maybe because it’s aluminium and usually cooling to the touch?), so if you have been waiting for a warm and vibrant Al-Star colour, you can look forward to this Copper Orange release! Thank you Fontoplumo, for highlighting […]
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If you’re like me, you probably love online shopping on places like Amazon.com. Have you ever wondered which fountain pens are the bestselling fountain pens on Amazon? Here I put together a list of the top 10, and I’m happy to know that I have already got reviews of some of them! Top 10 bestselling fountain pens on Amazon 10. Lamy AL-Star I have the review of the AL-Star right here, and it’s being compared with the Lamy Vista fountain pen, which is in a similar family as the Lamy Safari and the Lamy Vista. Often a little more expensive than the Lamy Safari, I suppose it’s why it ranks 10th this time. Personally, I like how the aluminium body feels, but probably due to the price, it seems that this is a less preferred option than the Safari. 9. Jinhao X450 I haven’t seen this pen before, but it looks just like a classic cigar-type fountain pen. I am guessing that people like this pen because it looks a little bit like a Mont Blanc or a Sailor pen (but I could be wrong). It seems to be a nice pen, and Jinhaos are rather popular for being well-built […]
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It’s been a long time since I’ve reviewed anything on this site! It’s not that I have no more pens to review – in fact, the number of pens waiting to be reviewed is a few times more than the number of pens I have actually reviewed on this site. But today, I am choosing this pen to talk about because I thought it fits into the Christmassy Season of Giving. I received this pen from The Pen Company a while ago and I couldn’t be happier when I received it! Presenting… the Lamy Joy AL Calligraphy Pen! For those of you who are familiar with the “nomenclature” of Lamy pens, you can pretty much guess that this is named “AL” because of the aluminium cap, as opposed to the glossy, all-plastic cap and barrel of the original Lamy Joy. This Lamy Joy AL has a silver aluminium cap with a black clip, and the barrel, while still made of plastic, has a smooth black lacquer over it. It is not glossy, but matte, the way I like it. Unless I’m mistaken, the AL release comes only in one colour and finish so far. I’ll be looking […]
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Yesterday was Friday the 13th – a day which is to some people unlucky, to others lucky, and to some more others, just another day. I had thought I would fall into the “just another day” category, when I received a tweet from @PilotPenUSA that I had won their Twitter contest, and I would receive a Pilot Pen Pack from them! I still don’t know what’s inside the pen pack, though, but I’ll blog it out when I receive the prize! Just hoping that they won’t tell me later on “Oops we are sorry but we forgot to mention that this contest is open to U.S. residents only…” That was the first surprised I received this morning. The second surprise was that I was told by Edison Pen Co. on Twitter that my Muji post was being featured on their paper.li page! Whoa, that was QUICK. I feel so honoured to be up on that list of articles! And besides, thanks to all these publicity (including that of other sources), I have finally crossed the 1000 clicks mark! Thanks for everyone’s support, I’ll be rolling out more ideas and ways to make this blog more interesting, do check back once in […]
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This review will be about my first two and only Lamy fountain pens. One was bought at Fook Hing Trading Co. on impulse because of the beautiful colour (Lamy AL-star black purple) and the other was bought online just so that I can have a Lamy Safari which is a demonstrator pen, at the same time (Lamy Vista Demonstrator fountain pen). The reason I am doing a comparison review for these pens is because they seem to be very similar in grade and quality, and both have very similar designs to the Lamy Safari range of pens. I don’t have a Safari myself (yet) but I will be thinking of getting one soon. Or perhaps a Lamy Joy instead. Comparing the shapes and designs, they don’t differ by a lot — the same kind of metal clip on both pens catches my attention first. They also have the same window at the side of the pen body to show you how much ink is left. Both pens feel almost the same in size, but the Vista is in fact slightly smaller that the AL-star. The metal clip of the Vista protrudes slightly more at the top of the cap. […]
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