Search the Community

My Noir et Noir from 1999, before Montblanc had to stop using that name, fundamentally broke about six weeks ago. The back barrel (flip-up part) had detached from the lower barrel such that it was now lodged deep in the cap. You could mount it on an exposed top screw such that you could make the nib retract and such, but the cap was useless in protecting the nib since its chamber was considerably narrowed by the stuck barrel part! I took it to our L.A. MB boutique, which made me feel fancier than I am, and got a service estimate of around $100. I wasn't delighted, but since authorized parts were needed I didn't feel like I had much choice. Well, I received the pen last week, and I have a lot of ambivalent feelings. On one hand, the pen was so broken the only salvageable piece of value was the nib assembly. Other than that, I suppose it's a new pen. That's cool, but it's lost its Noir et Noir band in favor of a Boheme band. Sure, if it has a new barrel assembly, it's going to have the new pen barrel. But somehow I wasn't thinking ahead to that, so it came as a surprise. I'm not so worried about the bump in collector value; that one broke, and I want to have a working pen that I carry around and use. But I had 16 years of history gripping that barrel and having pride in our "early adopter" status. Anyone else have any technical problems with the barrel mechanism?