Modern Pens: The Omas 360

[georges zaslavsky]

here are some of my 360s with some non Omas pens

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P3040100.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140108.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140109.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140110.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140111.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140112.jpg

 

 

[youstruckgold]

My humble 360 collection is the following (all old style piston filler, I really don't care for the new design):

• 360 blue-black HT fine
• 360 Magnum blue-black GT medium
• 360 Vision Bronze bold
• 360 Vision HT factory italic
• 360 Vintage red medium
• 360 Vintage blue medium

And I must say they are among my favourites pens and nibs (in all size).

 

Minor complains:

• small ink capacity (expecially when coupled with the luscious B or wide italic nibs)
• no easy way to lube the piston (but Eel inks help)

A few pics

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo288/enricofacchin/SANY0560.jpg

 

Love your pics!

[noobzproz]

Just joined the club! My 3rd fountain pen.....first being a lamy safari orange which got stolen.....a platinum izuno last week and just today i brought this beauty home!

 

 

[noobzproz]

Hoping that this year the 360 LE demonstrator comes in orange!

[raging.dragon]

raging.dragon, what a great collection of 360, congratulation!

I simply love this pen and I can't stop ordering them from Omas and stocking some different pieces to offer to my clientele.

 

During '90s Omas was receiving some pens to be repaired because, the owners said, they did not write properly. After checking the pens carefully Miss Malaguti realized that most of them were used improperly as the owners held them in a wrong way. So she decided to produce a pen that can be handled only in the proper way, and the result was not only a good working pen but also a wonderful and revolutionary deigned writing instrument. Technically the big challenge was to use a standard cylindrical piston in a triangular section, this is why the traditional "medium size" was a big pen and the capacity was not proportioned to the size.

For all these reasons the Mezzo (cartridge) and the new edition with the round nib section, are not even close (on my opinion) to the charming original 360 piston system pen.

 

The first production was made in 1996 (Omas book by Dolcini, page 73) in the large size and the oversize (only for the notaries), produced only in what the called "blue black", a so dark blue that you can hardly tell it is not black! Since the first production they make many different models, all great successes!

Enjoy them.

 

Marco

www.novelli.it

 

Oh I'm definitely enjoying my 360's. Since posting I've added a pair of Magnums to my collection and there's a PC Pen en route to me. I should post some photos and updates soon.

 

help me to find all the models and colors ever produced, I'm sure I will miss some editions:

Resin:

Oversize blue black (for notary)

standard blue-black

green

red

white

blue royal HT

 

Wood:

snakewood

ebony

palmwood:

 

celluloid:

wild

pearl grey

blue royal

burkina

Blue Lucens GT (limited)

Blue Lucens HT (limited)

 

Metal:

Immagination (limited)

FPC (limited)

Titanium HT

Titanium DLC

Demonstrator:

Vision HT

Vision GT fumee

Vintage blue (limited)

Vintatge red (limited)

Vintage turquoise (limited)

 

Am I missing anything?

Marco

Novelli.it

 

I'd never heard of the palm wood before.

 

There are a few you're missing: yellow resin with HT trim, grey resin with HT trim, colonial brown (a butterscotch or sandy colour) with rose gold trim, the blue resin was available with both HT (rhodium) and yellow gold trim. There's a MoMA variant in black resin with HT trim and triple bands on the cap and section, and a 75th anniversary owner's club version uses the MoMA trim with orange resin. I've also seen a special edition 360 made for Zenith (the Swiss watch brand) in translucent dark amber or brown resin.

 

If anyone has the palm wood or MoMA for sale, I'm interested....

[raging.dragon]

To the best of my current knowledge the 360 variants based on the original (pre-2007) design are:

360 (1996 - 2006):

Cotton resin

Blue Black, Gold trim and two tone nibs

Blue Black, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Iceberg White, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Raspberry Red, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Forest Green, yellow Gold trim and nib

Mandarin Yellow, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Colonial Brown, rose Gold trim and nib

Venice Blue, yellow Gold trim and nib

Venice Blue, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Dove Grey, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Celluloid

Wild, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Pearl grey, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Royale blue, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Vision HT

Clear cotton resin, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Vision Bronze

Clear amber cotton resin, yellow Gold trim and nib

ACS (Advanced Cartridge System)

Dove Grey, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Burkina and Exotic Wood 360

Burkina Celluloid, Sterling Silver section, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Ebony, Sterling Silver section, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Snakewood, Sterling Silver section, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Palm Wood (?), Sterling Silver section, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

360 Magnum

Blue Black cotton resin, Gold trim and two tone nibs

Blue Black cotton resin, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

360 Mezzo

various colours of cotton resin, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Numbered Limited Editions:

T2 Titanium

Titanium, , Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Year of Imagination

Sterling Silver, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

360 Lucens

Blue and translucent amber celluloid, Vermeil section, yellow gold trim and nib

Blue and translucent amber celluloid, Sterling Silver section, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Personal Computer Pen

Aluminum, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Erasmus Mundi LE

Burgundy cotton resin, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

360 Vintage LE

Translucent dark blue cotton resin, rose Gold trim and nib

Translucent red cotton resin, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Translucent turquoise cotton resin, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) trim and nib

Other 360 variants:

360 MoMA

Black cotton resin, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) MoMA trim and nib

360 75th Anniversary Owner's Club

Orange cotton resin, Rhodium (Hi-Tech) MoMA trim and nib

Zenith Pen

Translucent brown cotton resin, Zenith branding, yellow Gold trim and nib

[pmn]

Hi,

This thread is a great reference!

Thought I'd contribute with a photo of the one I got for Christmas: the ZENITH variation.

 

 

Cheers,

Edited January 3, 2014 by pmn

[youstruckgold]

Hi,

This thread is a great reference!

Thought I'd contribute with a photo of the one I got for Christmas: the ZENITH variation.

 

 

Cheers,

Love the look of this one - fabulous!

[raging.dragon]

Hi,

This thread is a great reference!

Thought I'd contribute with a photo of the one I got for Christmas: the ZENITH variation.

 

Cheers,

Thanks! This is only the second photo I've seen of the Zenith 360, and the first was low quality. The transparent brown looks great. This is one I'd like to add to my own collection.

 

Is it a cartridge filler? The cut out metal tube in the barrel looks alot like OMAS's ACS (Advanced Cartridge System).

[pmn]

Hi,

Yes, this one is the cartridge filler, the ACS version.

I have the pen inked at the moment, but here is na earlier picture showing the ACS tube.

 

From the 3 or 4 pictures I've found online of the Zenith I've found a piston filler version also... take a look at this one:

 

How many of these were actually made to have both versions?

 

Anyway, the ACS works just fine and we all know the pros and cons of cartridge vs botled ink supply.

However, with this tube system you have no tolerance on cartridge diameter, MB cartridges wont fit by a hair...

But a single long Pelikan cartridge will fit just fine

 

Pedro

[georges zaslavsky]

Hi,

This thread is a great reference!

Thought I'd contribute with a photo of the one I got for Christmas: the ZENITH variation.

 

 

Cheers,

great model , this one was made for the zenith watches brand, too bad it ain't a piston filler

Edited January 6, 2014 by georges zaslavsky

[pmn]

Hi All,

 

Adding to the 360's variations valuably listed in this single post, I include a few photos of the

75th Anniversary "symbol of distinction"

 

 

It is a regular sized piston filler, black with "white" trims and greek motiv bands,

 

 

Bears a monotone nib with "75 years" inscribed and the greek motiv on the sides,

 

 

The cap has "Italy 75 OMAS Symbol of Distinction" inscribed in the face opposed to the clip,

 

 

Great, just as 360s are!

[georges zaslavsky]

Hi All,

 

Adding to the 360's variations valuably listed in this single post, I include a few photos of the

75th Anniversary "symbol of distinction"

 

 

It is a regular sized piston filler, black with "white" trims and greek motiv bands,

 

 

Bears a monotone nib with "75 years" inscribed and the greek motiv on the sides,

 

 

The cap has "Italy 75 OMAS Symbol of Distinction" inscribed in the face opposed to the clip,

 

 

Great, just as 360s are!

Nice one

[stevesurf]

This is a most amazing thread and below, collection, most worthy of a "thread bump." The turquoise model I recently got from Nibs.com is one of my big favorites!

 

I believe the OMAS 360 and 360 Magnum were introduced some time in the late 1980's or early 1990's. I'm not certain when the 360 Magnum was discontinued; however, the 360 continued in OMAS's regular production line up until 2007. During this time several numbered limited editions and unnumbered special editions based on the 360 design were made in (relatively) small numbers. All 360 Magnums and the vast majority of 360's came with piston filler; however, a small number of cotton resin 360's were made with OMAS's Advanced Cartridge System (ACS) which used a metal carrier to hold a pair of standard international ink cartridges.

In 2007 a redesigned 360 was released, with a new clip, angled cap and barrel ends, a more rounded section, and cartridge/converter filler. Then in 2009 the Lamborghini LE introduced a third generation design, which kept most of the 2007 design, but reverted to the older trianglular section. This latest design has been subsequently used for additional Lamborghini LE's and the 2011 pens in blue or brown cotton resin with rose gold plated nib and trim. Starting in 2011 OMAS reindroduced the original 360 design as Vintage Limited Edition pens.

In 2003 the smaller cartridge filling 360 Mezzo was introduced. These pens were sold alongside the larger 360 and are still in production today. These pens are made from cotton resin, and although the line includes black and white pens, bright colours seem predominate. I am not aware of any limited or special edition pens based on the 360 Mezzo.

My collection focuses on the original 360 and the various Limited Edition's based upon it. The major design groups I intend to cover in follow up posts to this thread are:

• Original 360, including:
  • Cotton resin (various colours)
  • Celluloid (various colours)
  • Vision HT
  • Vision Bronze
• Burkina and Exotic Wood 360
• T2 Titanium
• Year of Imagination
• Vintage LE

At some point in the future, I hope to add the 360 Magnum and the 360 Lucens and Personal Computer limited editions to my collection and this thread. I will also post brief blurbs summarizing what little I know about the 360 Magnum, Erasmus LE, and various obscure special editions based on the 360.

 

 

 

 

here are some of my 360s with some non Omas pens

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P3040100.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140108.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140109.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140110.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140111.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/P4140112.jpg

 

 

Edited October 8, 2014 by stevesurf

[GTOZack]

I am in market for one and why is it that anytime I am looking for certain pen, it is impossible to find. Then there is times where I gave up for a week or so. about 6 shows up on the Evil bay and classifieds. What is this sorcery!

[georges zaslavsky]

I am in market for one and why is it that anytime I am looking for certain pen, it is impossible to find. Then there is times where I gave up for a week or so. about 6 shows up on the Evil bay and classifieds. What is this sorcery!

Mottishaw has some of the older 360 in grey celluloid but they cost 760$ and are mint http://www.nibs.com/omas-360-pearl-gray.htm

[149OBB]

Nice one

Greats picts! And nice pen!

[stevesurf]

Mottishaw has some of the older 360 in grey celluloid but they cost 760$ and are mint http://www.nibs.com/omas-360-pearl-gray.htm

 

Let me also recommend getting the Omas 360 Vintage LEs from nibs.com, they are amazing when tuned! They are going fast, though.

 

Hi All,

 

Adding to the 360's variations valuably listed in this single post, I include a few photos of the

75th Anniversary "symbol of distinction"

 

 

It is a regular sized piston filler, black with "white" trims and greek motiv bands,

 

 

Bears a monotone nib with "75 years" inscribed and the greek motiv on the sides,

 

 

The cap has "Italy 75 OMAS Symbol of Distinction" inscribed in the face opposed to the clip,

 

 

Great, just as 360s are!

 

 

Hi,

Yes, this one is the cartridge filler, the ACS version.

I have the pen inked at the moment, but here is na earlier picture showing the ACS tube.

 

From the 3 or 4 pictures I've found online of the Zenith I've found a piston filler version also... take a look at this one:

 

How many of these were actually made to have both versions?

 

Anyway, the ACS works just fine and we all know the pros and cons of cartridge vs botled ink supply.

However, with this tube system you have no tolerance on cartridge diameter, MB cartridges wont fit by a hair...

But a single long Pelikan cartridge will fit just fine

 

Pedro

 

 

These are all so beautiful!!!

Edited November 13, 2014 by stevesurf

[Aysedasi]

I don't own one and had never seen one in the flesh until today. A colleague who knows I use fountain pens gave me his to take a look at as it wasn't writing properly. Seems that he left it for a long (very long) time filled and the ink had dried in the feed (and everywhere else I suspect, bearing in mind how long it is taking me to clean it).

 

What I do know is that I'm bowled over by it. It's absolutely beautiful and I want one!

 

Anyone want to trade me one for a 149.....?

Edited February 28, 2015 by Aysedasi

[da vinci]

I am beginning to want an OMAS. My slight worry is that all the nibs I have tried seem to be very soft indeed. I do not exert undue pressure but I am more of a fan of a nail than a flex nib..

 

I really like the 360s - can anyone give me a view on their nibs?