List Of Flagship Pens By Brand

[danielpi]

There have been many threads here listing the “flagship” pens of various well known brands (see this, this, and this). I’m posting this simply to organize the information a little bit more attractively.

 

To be clear, I define “flagship” as follows: A “flagship” pen is a regular production model (i.e., not a limited or special edition), which is generally the largest, most expensive, and most visibly advertised item in a brand’s inventory. Where no single pen satisfies all the criteria, a judgment call may have to be made on what (if any) product is the “flagship” for a particular brand. Obviously, a brand calling one of its own products its “flagship” trumps other considerations.

 

Any corrections, additions, or suggestions are appreciated.

 

Brand	Flagship	Entry Level	Other Notable Lines	Country
Aurora	Aurora 88 Large	Ipsilon De Luxe	Talentum, Alpha, Optima	Italy
Caran D’Ache	Léman	Ecridor	Varius, Madison	Switzerland
Conway Stewart	Churchill	None	Winston, Wellington, Series 100, Marlborough	United Kingdom
Cross	Townsend	Classic	Apogee, ATX, Botanica, Sauvage	United States
Delta	Dolce Vita Oversize	Unica	Many Lines	Italy
Graf von Faber Castell	Intuition Platino Wood (seems to have displaced the Classic)	Guilloche	Classic, Pen of the Year	Germany
Franklin Christoph	Model 19 “1901”	Model 27 “Collegia”	Many Individual Models	United States
Lamy	Lamy 2000	Safari	Studio, Dialog	Germany
Montblanc	Meisterstück 149 “Diplomat”	None	Writers Edition, Great Characters Edition, Starwalker, Boheme	Germany
Omas	Paragon	None	Milord, Bologna, 360, Ogiva	Italy
Parker	Duofold (Centennial)	Vector	Sonnet, Premier, Ingenuity, Parker 51 (discontinued), P25 (discontinued)	United States
Pelikan	M1000 Souverän	M100, M150, M200, M205, M215, M250 Classic	Many Lines	German
Pilot	Custom 845 (Some discussion on the point )	Metropolitan	Falcon, Vanishing Point, Custom 823, Justus	Japan
Platinum	President	Preppy	3776 Series	Japan
Sailor	King of Pen	Many Models	1911 Series, Professional Gear	Japan
Sheaffer	Legacy Heritage	VFM	Taranis, Prelude, Sagaris, 300, 100, Intensity, Ferrari	United States
TWSBI	Diamond	Eco	Classic, Vac 700, Mini, 580AL	Taiwan
Visconti	None (Possibly the Divina. See this and this)	Classic	Homo Sapiens, Opera, Van Gogh, Michelangelo	Italy
Waterman	Edson	Charleston	Carène, Exception	France

Edited September 24, 2015 by RMN

[FOUR X FOUR]

Nice, thank you

[Lam1]

Wow! It's really nice of you to put all this together, thank you.

 

I do have a question though. Wouldn't the Izumo be the current flagship from Platinum?

[danielpi]

  On 9/22/2015 at 1:14 AM, Lam1 said:

Wow! It's really nice of you to put all this together, thank you.

 

I do have a question though. Wouldn't the Izumo be the current flagship from Platinum?

 

Sure. Platinum seems to market the President specifically using the word "flagship." Do a Google search for "platinum pen flagship," and you'll get a few dozen hits naming the President as the flagship, using similar wording, which I presume Platinum distributed to retailers in their marketing material. Anyway, the Izumo seems more like something that qualifies as a special edition.

[Lam1]

  On 9/22/2015 at 1:24 AM, danielpi said:

Sure. Platinum seems to market the President specifically using the word "flagship." Do a Google search for "platinum pen flagship," and you'll get a few dozen hits naming the President as the flagship, using similar wording, which I presume Platinum distributed to retailers in their marketing material. Anyway, the Izumo seems more like something that qualifies as a special edition.

Ok. Thank you for clarifying.

 

I've bookmarked the thread for future reference.

[hbdk]

Really nice - thanks for sharing. I wonder about Lamy - entry level would that not be the ABC?

[danielpi]

  On 9/22/2015 at 6:47 AM, hbdk said:

Really nice - thanks for sharing. I wonder about Lamy - entry level would that not be the ABC?

 

 

Well... Lamy has gobs of cheap pens. The Safari seems to be the popular "first fountain pen," and seems like the most widely known entry level offering. The ABC is like for children, no? I mean, technically I suppose that'd be even more entry level than Safari, but that seems like maybe a specialty thing.

 

I suppose the thing about Lamy is just where its market is. Seems like maybe I should just put "Many lines" under that category.

[Notgatherox]

TWSBI's flagship is the Diamond 580 (currently. The flagship is the Diamond model, but as they come out with new models this model number will change)

 

Starter line: Eco

 

Other notable models include: Classic, Vac 700, Mini, 580AL

 

Country: ROC (Republic of China)

 

 

~Epic

[danielpi]

Eric: Thanks. Yeah, I am a little leery of including TWSBI. I mean, at their price points, ALL of their lines are entry level. It's an entry level brand. Nevertheless, this is perhaps snobbish of me. I dunno. I added an entry for it, but it seems to be an odd fit with the rest of them.

[Kiaxa]

If I could help

 

Sheaffer's flagship is the Legacy Heritage, it being the most expensive and it carries Sheaffer's inlaid nib

 

Sheaffer's lowest end pen is the VFM (No Nonsense seems to be discontinued)

 

Other notable line: Taranis, Prelude, Sagaris, 300, 100, Intensity, Ferrari collection

 

Country: USA

[dojocho]

For Parker you might consider adding the Vector and the discontinued P25 as notable lines. The Vector is widely used by pro's as well as students.

 

Regards,

 

Hugo

[inotrym]

This is a very interesting thread! And I am all for including all kinds of companies. Even those that are supposed to only make entry level products.

 

I think though that the Urban and the IM are more like mid_range/next_step pens for Parker. Vector, Jotter and Frontier (if still manufactured) fit better the entry level category.

 

edit: Hugo beat me to it!

Edited September 22, 2015 by inotrym

[benjitzu]

Great summary - thanks for putting this together!

[danielpi]

  On 9/22/2015 at 1:00 PM, Kiaxa said:

If I could help

 

Sheaffer's flagship is the Legacy Heritage, it being the most expensive and it carries Sheaffer's inlaid nib

 

Sheaffer's lowest end pen is the VFM (No Nonsense seems to be discontinued)

 

Other notable line: Taranis, Prelude, Sagaris, 300, 100, Intensity, Ferrari collection

 

Country: USA

 

 

Thanks. I don't know the Sheaffer brand as well as maybe I should. Added it.

 

 

  On 9/22/2015 at 2:55 PM, dojocho said:

For Parker you might consider adding the Vector and the discontinued P25 as notable lines. The Vector is widely used by pro's as well as students.

 

Regards,

 

Hugo

 

Quite right. Corrected.

 

 

  On 9/22/2015 at 3:49 PM, benjitzu said:

Great summary - thanks for putting this together!

 

Welcome. Hope it's useful to people.

[CAG_1787]

Great idea and well put together.

[Kiaxa]

A quick correction to Delta; the Unica would be the entry level because it is ~$30 less than the Serena ($76 for the Unica vs $108 for the Serena)

[gordonhooker]

Thanks for taking the time to put the list together it is greatly appreciated.

[danielpi]

  On 9/22/2015 at 8:55 PM, Kiaxa said:

A quick correction to Delta; the Unica would be the entry level because it is ~$30 less than the Serena ($76 for the Unica vs $108 for the Serena)

 

Fixed. Thanks.

[jthole]

Nice list! I think that most Parker pens are made in France nowadays?

[danielpi]

@jthole: Yeah, I've read that somewhere as well. Nevertheless... it's an American company.