Waterman Hémisphère Review - Blue - Medium Nib

[Caeruleum]

Since there are few reviews on the Waterman Hémisphère and some of them no longer display the photos included, I decided to write one. I hope to contribute some information for those who enjoy getting an overview of what is on the market, those who consider buying a new pen and for those who more specifically know what they are looking for but struggle to find information on details. I have my Hémisphère for about one and a half year and now feel comfortable to provide some insights.

 

Introduction

This review is meant to depict my personal opinion and valuation, thus I don't want to use points to rate aspects. Surely comparability is an advantage which makes using points worth considering, but neither am I an expert for the standards used nor could I compare a pen to dozens of first hand experiences with other pens. Because of that I will try my best to describe my experience with this Hémisphère in a way which allows you to contrast it to your experiences and preferences. Nonetheless I will offer a few comparisons.

The Waterman Hémisphère was introduced in 1994 representing sophisticated elegance according to Waterman's website. Correspondingly this pen has been designed. Overall the Hémisphère is a rather slim, small to medium sized and well-made pen which can be ranked as a next-level pen.

 

First Impressions

Included were the pen itself and a pack of serenity blue cartridges. Unfortunately there is no converter included.

Overall the presentation gave me an impression of premium quality while still not looking gaudy. The blue and beige colours comply with the idea of elegance and match the colour of this pen and the very well, I think. While that is no coincident of course, this is. Anyway I find the box attractive and kept mine.

The pen itself didn't underwhelm either, it is very well made. Probably the first thing you will notice when you open the box is that this pen is rather slender. When you then hold it in your hand you might be surprised by its weight nonetheless. The Hémisphère feels very solid, more on the construction in the next paragraphs.

 

Appearance & Construction

The Hémisphère is available in many different colours and trims. All of them share stainless steel nibs, being based on a brass body covered with lacquer and black sections. The trim is either highly polished palladium-plated stainless steel or 23k gold-plated stainless steel. There used to be colourful designs with green or red lacquer, now more muted and many silvery versions dominate the line.

The regular versions feature bodies and caps made from metal plus lacquer while there are two sub lines in addition. Deluxe Hémisphères all have palladium-plated caps which are partly chiseled with wavy patterns in some of these models, others show similar decorations on their body.

La Collection Privée Hémisphères feature metallic bodies and differently engraved stainless steel. However I suggest to visit Watermans website or the one of a shop you trust, if you want to take a look at the variants available. From now on I will concentrate on the version I have, since this is what I can describe the best.

As I mentioned this pen is slim. While it is not (overly) long compared to other pens, it is long compared to its girth. These proportions contribute to Waterman describing it as ultimate elegance. It certainly is a smaller pen and a pen which is meant to have a different aura than for example a Montblanc 149. My Hémisphère features deep blue lacquer and chrome trim. The cap makes up for about 2/5 of the entire length, towards the cap band it becomes slightly wider. A uniquely angled finial plated with shiny palladium marks the top end.

Below is a relatively broad ring which holds the clip. Engraved on the clip is the Waterman-W with the loop but without the hexagon alluding to modern Watermans French background you can find on some of their nibs. Furthermore a long cutout dominates the rest of the clip. It is straight until to about the cutouts end where it then starts to slowly taper.

The cap clicks firmly into place albeit inside the cap is no insert as far as I can see with good light or a flashlight. The cap walls are thicker closer to its top but are entirely made from metal. This means no additional protection against ink drying out. A palladium plated cap band completes the cap.

When capped this cap band is directly next to another, broader band on the barrel on which the words Waterman Paris and France are engraved. There is a very small step between these two bands making the cap almost flush with the body.

Note the change in colour close to the bands. Don't note the dust and microscratches I can see now as this picture is enlarged.

The barrel now is mostly unadorned, it tapers evenly towards its finial. This finial is about as broad as the barrel band and is characterized by a flat top in contrast to the angled one on the cap. The lacquer is a deep blue, slightly darker than a middle blue in my opinion but vibrant. Interestingly the colour changes close to the finials and the bands. There you can see a ring of darker, more intense blue followed by a lighter blue area directly next to the trim. This might sound like a flaw and I assume this is not intended but a byproduct of this method of creating a finish. It it only affects a small area and you only will be able to see this peculiarity when you hold the pen close to your eye. Moreover it certainly helps if the light is good and you know what you are looking for. Otherwise this change in colour is likely to be overlooked. This phenomenon could also awake memories of urushi lacquer (on Nakaya pens), if you have a positive attitude you could see it this way too.

In terms of colour the nib matches the trim, however it is made from steel without plating. It is smaller than a #5 size nib. The Waterman W reappears engraved in the nibs centre, again without the hexagon. Beneath you can read Waterman Paris and in this case M for the nib size. Aside from this there are two swirly lines reaching from the left and right of the central W to the nibs shoulders and narrowing down towards the nib slit. As many other Watermans do this nib does not exhibit a breather hole. Ultimately there is quite a big ball of tipping material which means this nib probably is well suited for customizations. What would the nib a without a feed? In relation to the nib the feed is surprisingly big, mostly deep, and it has fins which are supposed to help maintaining a steady ink flow.

The seams can be seen just below the reflection on the section. You can also see the laquer's colour change again.

The sections is made from injection-molded plastic and tapers towards the nib where it flares out. Due to the way of molding you can see and feel the seams. Unfortunately being made from plastic the section is also less robust than the lacquer. I generally am careful with my pens, especially with this one since it was a gift, but still after a year and a half there now are more micro scratches than I hoped for. This makes the section a less than perfect part of the Hémisphère. Despite its smooth surface I rarely had problems with slipperiness. However a personal problem I had was caused by the sections small diameter. It often feels somewhat awkward to me. I do not think it is too small for everyone, but I prefer wider sections.

My hands are not especially big I want to add. From the tip of my middle finger to the base of the palm it is 18cm, 7in. This site by a German retailer helped me measuring and offers various tips on selecting the perfect pen for you.

Removing the barrel reveals plastic threads. This potentially causes abrasion by the metal threads the barrel uses. Although there are no signs of wear until now, I need to say metal would have been a sturdier option and increase my confidence in longevity.

 

 

Weight and Dimensions

Length capped: 137mm 5,39in

Length posted: 152mm 5,98in

Length uncapped: 121mm 4,77in

Weight capped: 23g 0,81oz

Weight body: 16g 0,56oz

Weight cap: 7g 0,25oz

I was not able to measure diameters accurately thus I suggest looking them up on gourmetpens for example.

For me the balance is even when uncapped. Posting is possible but will affect the balance a lot making the pen feel back weighted. Another argument against posting is that the inside of the cap is made from brass which could cause scratches on the barrels lacquer.

 

Nib and Performance

I got a medium nib which wrote smoothly out of the box. Interestingly it felt dry with cartridges of Waterman Serenity Blue at the very beginning. This changed when I used different inks, now Serenity Blue works fine as well. Writing with it feels like a controlled gliding as I can still feel the paper and hear some of the friction between it and the nib. In contrast to Waterman pens from the first half of the 20^th century contemporary Waterman nibs are not known for flexibility. Most of their nibs now are stiff, I have often seen them described as nails, and this Hémisphères nib enqueues. Under pressure the tines open up just slightly and feel as if they wanted to express they are not intended to flex. The flow is in the middle of the spectrum between very wet and very dry. With most inks it is better to wait for a few seconds before turning the sheet. To me that makes it very suitable for daily usage. Due to the absence of a cap insert, hard starts can occur when I have not used this pen for a week or two, for day-to-day writing it starts up perfectly though. Once it writes there are no skips and the nib keeps up with fast writing easily. I can also leave this Hémisphère uncapped for a minute without issues, it will just write on.

Only blue inks, I just noticed.

The medium nib runs on the broad side of medium. This is typical for Waterman, you might consider this when choosing a nib size. Classic Fountain Pens provides a chart giving an overview of what the different nib sizes mean to different brands. Nonetheless there of course are variations from model to model within a brand and pen to pen also. You can find much evidence for relatively broadly tipped Watermans on FPN and well exemplified by Matt Armstrong for example.

Reverse writing is possible because the flow does not decrease much, but writing becomes very scratchy.

 

Filling System & Maintenance

Waterman uses a proprietary cartridge/converter system. Nonetheless there are not as big differences to standard international as for example with Pilot. I was able to use standard international cartridges in my Hémisphère smoothly. As I mentioned above there is no converter included.

This is my favourite converter so far.

So I bought one for about 8, it is a twist-type converter. A downside is its plastic mouth but overall it makes a great impression. The shroud is made from metal, the knob from plastic. Latter features indentures which provide good grip. Furthermore its seal utilizes red rubber which seals exceptionally well and gives a smooth and controlled feeling when turning the knob. One could expect this I think, it is not self-evident though as I also have converters which allowed ink to get trapped behind the seal.

 

Cost and Value

The Hémisphère retails at around 75 (which currently equals 90$ or 65£) from specialized stores. On Amazon you can find lower prices. Looking up who eventually sells the pen and offers warranty probably is useful in this case. This price makes the Hémisphère one of the more expensive steel-nibbed pens. Pens which write very well are available for far less. The Faber Castell Loom, Pilot Metropolitan/MR or Platinum Cool are good examples, albeit most of them have not been designed with as much attention to elegant, fancy design as this pen, I would say. If you desire this aspect you might look at pens in a similar price range to the Hémisphère like the Diplomat Aero or the Pelikan M200/205/215, which write smoothly and consistently too. Finally one could argue that for about twice the Hémisphères cost you can also get a Platinum 3776, Lamy 2000 or Pilot Custom 74 for example. There are good reasons for choosing one of the pens I mentioned, not because the Hémisphère would fail you however. Despite all these competitors I think this Waterman is reasonably equipped with functionality, design and performance to defend its place. If you want an upgrade that looks nicer and performs better than what most people start out with as a first fountain pen this is a good choice.

 

Conclusion

The Waterman Hémisphère is an elegant and appealing next-level pen of high quality and excellent writing performance. I would recommend it to people who like smaller pens.

 

On the photos: Because I often was excited seeing many great photos here on FPN I also wondered how I they were taken and how I could take some. As a camera I mostly used a Canon Eos 1100D and fpor some photos a Nexus 5, which is a phone. Putting together a "softbox" helped me very much to have acceptable and somewhat more controllable light. I just used some cardboard and copier paper to build it as you partly can see in my second picture.

 

Feedback, criticism and further questions on this review are very welcome. If there is anything which stroke your attention, which you liked or didn't like, let me know. I look forward to improvements.

Thank you for reading.

Edited January 6, 2018 by Caeruleum

[Nosferatualso]

Thank you this is very helpful review. I have a silver one I use for days with lots of meetings

[Left FPN]

Very good. My only comment being the nib. Waterman specify it as stainless steel but they do not refer to it as being palladium plated.

 

But then again, and something I have questioned with Waterman, they still state CT for many pens (some still say ST) which IMV means Chrome (plated) Trim. ST being Silver (plated) Trim

[Caeruleum]

Thank you for pointing that out.

You're right, Force. I obviously mixed up the colour/plating of the nib. The nib is not plated. I meant to say the nib's colour and the the colour of the trim are very close, but it became misleading. I will edit this.

[darazs]

Thanks for the very comprehensive review. It gives a good light on this model.

[RocketRyan]

The nib on mine is silky smooth. It's not comfortable for long writing for me personally.

[The Blue Knight]

Nice review, really like the photos. Have to say one of my complaints when digging through the archives is the number of reviews missing there photos.

[Caeruleum]

Nice review, really like the photos. Have to say one of my complaints when digging through the archives is the number of reviews missing there photos.

Yes, that's sad. I hope my images will last.

Thank you.

[VivienR]

I have one Hemisphere in purple. I find that the nib occasionally skips. Cleaned the pen before I used, and used with Pelikan Violet. Although I bought this pen solely to have it, not necessarily use it.

[alanshutko]

I have a stainless steel finish Hemisphere, and it seems to skip or not start sometimes too. Looked like a bit of baby bottom, but I think I've fixed that. It still has problems with a really long stroke across a sheet of paper, but it otherwise better.

[Caeruleum]

I have one Hemisphere in purple. I find that the nib occasionally skips. Cleaned the pen before I used, and used with Pelikan Violet. Although I bought this pen solely to have it, not necessarily use it.

I am no expert, and there is more than one reason for skipping and hard starting. But have you tried writing with another ink? Pelikan's non-Edelstein inks are quite dry. If you have other inks I'd try to flush your Hémisphère again and maybe use a Diamine ink, they usually flow much wetter.

[gweimer1]

I'm glad I found this. I have a Hemisphere coming that I got pretty cheap, and am looking forward to using it.

[simar]

Great review . I will always have a soft spot for Waterman pens .

[VivienR]

I am no expert, and there is more than one reason for skipping and hard starting. But have you tried writing with another ink? Pelikan's non-Edelstein inks are quite dry. If you have other inks I'd try to flush your Hémisphère again and maybe use a Diamine ink, they usually flow much wetter.

 

I know, although I didn't care about currently to try with different inks.Landed in its box. My biggest regret with Waterman, that I missed the Purple Crane boat...

[Caeruleum]

 

I know, although I didn't care about currently to try with different inks.Landed in its box. My biggest regret with Waterman, that I missed the Purple Crane boat...

I don't intend to advertise, but Force might know where you can find a purple one. He's an (the) expert for Carenes.

[Time-Traveller]

I have two Hémisphères (shiny black GT and green GT), both of them with a fine nib, which I find really pleasantly fine (i.e., fine enough for my small handwriting). I was so pleased with the black one that when a rare green one showed up on that well-known internet second-hand marketplace, I felt I had to have that one too. Perhaps it is because of the fineness of these nibs that both make a slightly dry impression, which again is just fine with me.

The review mentions the only slight ‘issue’ I have with these otherwise very nice pens: the lack of an inner liner or cap insert. (This is the one reason why I now use them when I know in advance that I’ll be using them intensively over a period of a few days; otherwise I tend to favour my Waterman Experts, which don’t dry out so soon, my Platinum 3776 Centuries, which are superb in this respect, my Diplomat Esteems or my Pelikan M200, which are also pretty good.) When using Waterman’s brown ink, I see that when I continue writing the next morning the colour is noticeably darker for two or three lines: the result of a slight drying in the feed. But after that they write fine again.

Converters with a metal mouth exist too, by the way.

 

[truphae_inc]

Lovely photos! Thanks for sharing such a detailed review!

[Caeruleum]

Lovely photos! Thanks for sharing such a detailed review!

Thank you for the feedback. That makes the time spent worth it.