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Here is my first ever review of a fountain pen,Waterman L'etalon. This expresses my own observations and comments about this pen and reflects my own experiance . I disclaim any association ,whether positive or negative with any person , firm , organization ,or group . FIRST IMPRESSION .I saw the pen about three yerars ago in the show case of a local shop of fancy items , and i was stunned with the beautiful look of this pen .I am not a particular fan of gold items but this particular pen catched me to the point of no escape, so I purchased it immidietly and filled and performed a writing test riget on the shop .At that time ,I did not know that it was the L'etalon. THE PRESENTATION .The pen was housed in a blue waterman contemporary box with white satin lining inside. The box was layed in an outer card -board sleeve. No accessories , no ink cartridges or bottle. CONSTRUCTION . The pen is made of solid brass i.e cap and barrel ,with a very beautiful engraved pattern ,called "basketveawe" pattern. It feels very nice to touch .The section is made of plastic with a thin golden ring near the nib and and a quite broader ring near the end of the section, with "waterman " and "france " inscribed on it ..The section screw is also made of brass wth gold polish.The cap has black plastic (or Onyx , I dont know !) flat cabachon ( for the lack of a better term ! )at the blind end .The upper and lower ends are plain .The end of cap meeting the barrel appears to have a ring and has a small hexagonal waterman logo and also engraved ""paris". The cap has a very nice blanc space for engraving ones name etc. The clip is beautiful ,roughly triangular in shape with a blanc cut in the middle .The barrel has flat circular golden disc attached at the end. THE NIB AND FEED.The nib is quite big keeping in proportion to the main body of the pen . .It is golden ,and shows engravings: waterman logo ,waterman , paris ,18 k 750 and some simple desgn . Interestingly, it has no breahther hole. The feed is also large resembling comb-cut pattern ,and shows engraving letter indicating the width of the nib . FILLING. The pen can be filled with cartridges or a waterman scew -type converter , which appears small in relation to the size of the pen. CLOSING /OPENING The pen opens and closes thru snap mechanism which is quite secure . WRITING AND PERFORMANCE.The fine nib on the pen is really smooth,and very close to my desire.In fact ,this nib draws consistent wet line as the ink-flow is very smooth .Writing with the pen is a very very pleasurable experiance. CONCLUSION.The pen is elegant ,beautiful and an excellent writer, and makes a treasured possession.The only " flaw " with the pen is that it is considerably hefty and it will take sometime for me to be "habitual" with this pen. But the heft is justified in its very name L'etalon ,a french alternative of "stallion" ,meaning a horse .This pen is solid ,sturdy and built to last and beautiful as well.It is unfortunate that the pen is no longer in production since 1996. '