Vintage Lamy 2000 Ads From 1969

[Arstook]

Hello friends,

 

I was doing some online research and found a couple of old Lamy 2000 ads dating to 1969, three years after its debut in the market. Not too many of them floating around. I took some college German and can understand some of the ad content. Perhaps some of our native German speakers in the subforum can provide more detailed translations of what they say.

 

In spite of the 2000s design chic conception and aesthetic connections to the Bauhaus, it appears the company followed a conservative marketing strategy, selling it as a convenient and high quality gift pen. The target audience described in the ads confirms the little blurb on the Lamy website about the company's attempt to appeal to "... successful, middle aged men, who were image conscious, but tended towards understatement."

 

I was pleased to find out that Lamy apparently offered mechanical pencil and ballpoint versions of the 2000 from the very beginning.

Edited April 25, 2018 by Arstook

[GaryUK]

Great post. Love old ads. Not too many things are so unchanged over 50 years. The Lamy 2000 looks futuristic even today.

 

Gary

[akrohn2010]

Very cool!

[soapytwist]

I was pleased to find out that Lamy apparently offered mechanical pencil and ballpoint versions of the 2000 from the very beginning.

 

Yes - I had an early ballpoint with a ball bearing clip end, but stupidly sent it off to Lamy as the mechanism wasn't working, thinking they'd just replace the mechanism. Annoyingly they just sent me back a new pen - all the original features had disappeared!

 

Here's an early boxed FP with its instructions:

 

[jchch1950]

Thanks for the copy of the ads.It will be nice to see more old ads or catalogues.

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi all,

 

For the sake of the morbidly curious...

 

In 1969, the pen alone would have cost you around $12 USD, (or $84 today); the fountain and ball set, around $25, (or $174 today); the triple-threat would have set you back $30, (or $209 today)... and the executive blotter set would have cost you about $63, (or $481 today).

 

 

- Anthony

[Arstook]

 

Yes - I had an early ballpoint with a ball bearing clip end, but stupidly sent it off to Lamy as the mechanism wasn't working, thinking they'd just replace the mechanism. Annoyingly they just sent me back a new pen - all the original features had disappeared!

 

Here's an early boxed FP with its instructions:

 

 

Wow! Love the packaging, pen looks pretty similar to modern Lamy 2000s. When does it date from? Did you get in Germany? I'm curious when Lamy started to have a presence in the foreign markets.

[Arstook]

Hi all,

 

For the sake of the morbidly curious...

 

In 1969, the pen alone would have cost you around $12 USD, (or $84 today); the fountain and ball set, around $25, (or $174 today); the triple-threat would have set you back $30, (or $209 today)... and the executive blotter set would have cost you about $63, (or $481 today).

 

 

- Anthony

I wonder about the pricing for the fountain and ball set. I think it must be the addition of the "plexiglaswürfel" (plexiglass-cube) pictured in the ad that makes the set a little more than twice the price of the fountain pen alone. I wonder if anyone has photos of what the desk sets looked like.

[AidenMark]

Great post. Love old ads. Not too many things are so unchanged over 50 years. The Lamy 2000 looks futuristic even today.

 

 

 

Is it a coincidence that time travel was a constant theme in the SF of the 60s?

 

There are a whole set of 60s objects

 

• Lamy 2000
• Porsche 911
• Lockheed SR-71
• Jeff Beck's guitar solos for the Yardbirds

 

which simply cannot be explained unless a secret time travel mechanism existed back then.

Edited April 25, 2018 by AidenMark

[RMN]

I love that desk set. But, at todays prices that alone, without the pens, would have cost a ton.

 

That FP was then 44 DM, now 205 EUR, so 5 times as much

The set was 230 DM, so would have been 1150 EUR these days. WOW. That was for the 5 part set, without the pens.

Add to that 205 for the FP and 52 for the BP and 63 for the pencil so the set would have totalled just short of 1500 EUR. Apparently RBs were not around then. (69, these days)

 

 

But I love that desk set.

 

 

 

D.ick

[Calabria]

Thank you for an amazing post! Also, kudos to those who translated the prices ... I was thinking, 44DM, that's spottbillig (super cheap)!

 

Interesting how Lamy's design philosophy has changed! In 1966 it's all about decisiveness, masculinity, technology, form. In the black amber booklet, it's about "pleasant warm feel," "charismatic tint," "perfectly balanced," and the "expressive moment." I guess Lamy thinks that modern masculinity is a bit more sensitive and vulnerable... 😗

 

Does anybody have cp1 ads from that age? I'm convinced the cp1 was marketed to "ladies" but the design, though slim, is still pretty austere. I wonder how their marketing team described it.

[Arstook]

Thank you for an amazing post! Also, kudos to those who translated the prices ... I was thinking, 44DM, that's spottbillig (super cheap)!

 

Interesting how Lamy's design philosophy has changed! In 1966 it's all about decisiveness, masculinity, technology, form. In the black amber booklet, it's about "pleasant warm feel," "charismatic tint," "perfectly balanced," and the "expressive moment." I guess Lamy thinks that modern masculinity is a bit more sensitive and vulnerable...

 

Does anybody have cp1 ads from that age? I'm convinced the cp1 was marketed to "ladies" but the design, though slim, is still pretty austere. I wonder how their marketing team described it.

Haha! I did some more online searching, but was unable to find any Cp1 ads. But the Lamy Company History page on their website supports your suspicion that the Cp1 was marketed to women. Describing the Cp1 line, the website says on its timeline for 1974: "The extremely slim, cylindrical all-metal writing instruments not only make more and more national and international design award committees aware of Lamy. Significantly, they are also seen more and more frequently in the hands of design-conscious women."

 

https://www.lamy.com/content/the_company/about_lamy/company_history/index_eng.html#

Edited April 26, 2018 by Arstook

[soapytwist]

 

Wow! Love the packaging, pen looks pretty similar to modern Lamy 2000s. When does it date from? Did you get in Germany? I'm curious when Lamy started to have a presence in the foreign markets.

 

It's the earliest version - 'Lamy 2000' on the cap imprint (no 'W. Germany'), green stripe on the feed, and flat piston knob end rather than chamfered edged. So I'm guessing 1966-67. It was bought in Germany.

I think Lamy started having a presence in the UK in the mid seventies - I got my first Lamy (a plastic school-level rollerball) in the mid-eighties. Couldn't tell you about the US and other markets though.

 

 

Thank you for an amazing post! Also, kudos to those who translated the prices ... I was thinking, 44DM, that's spottbillig (super cheap)!

 

Interesting how Lamy's design philosophy has changed! In 1966 it's all about decisiveness, masculinity, technology, form. In the black amber booklet, it's about "pleasant warm feel," "charismatic tint," "perfectly balanced," and the "expressive moment." I guess Lamy thinks that modern masculinity is a bit more sensitive and vulnerable...

 

Does anybody have cp1 ads from that age? I'm convinced the cp1 was marketed to "ladies" but the design, though slim, is still pretty austere. I wonder how their marketing team described it.

 

 

There's a 1979 catalogue for download in the Lamy links section (along with the 1997 one). It doesn't genderise the pens at all:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/279845-interesting-l-a-m-y-links/?p=3204303

[soapytwist]

A couple more images from Dietmar Geyer's Collecting Writing Instruments.

 

Early Lamy 2000 counter POS:

 

 

 

I'm guessing this is and early-mid eighties advert:

 

[AidenMark]

The 'typical Lamy advertising' above is one of Stuttgart agency L&K's witty, often multilingual adverts for Der Speigel magazine in the 70s and 80s.

 

A late period L&K ad - perhaps conscious of Lamy's just for boys image - a rare example of Lamy stepping out of their bachelor-pad-modernism comfort zone:

 

[RMN]

The 'typical Lamy advertising' above is one of Stuttgart agency L&K's witty, often multilingual adverts for Der Speigel magazine in the 70s and 80s.

 

A late period L&K ad - perhaps conscious of Lamy's just for boys image - a rare example of Lamy stepping out of their bachelor-pad-modernism comfort zone:

 

 

This one reminds me of Rene Gruau.

 

 

D.ick

[Calabria]

Fun thread.

 

I like the line in the company profile which states that the LAMY brand has a "personal identity function." (2004)

 

The Lamy lady is no longer available I guess. My Highschool girlfriend had a cp1 - that was the early 80s (in Germany). I remember the Safari release but the pen didn't write very well - it was dry and scratchy. I absolutely love the abc and have three of them.

 

I think a Lamy pen does say something specific about the user; kind of tech geeky? What do you think?

[Calabria]

 

It's the earliest version - 'Lamy 2000' on the cap imprint (no 'W. Germany'), green stripe on the feed, and flat piston knob end rather than chamfered edged. So I'm guessing 1966-67. It was bought in Germany.

I think Lamy started having a presence in the UK in the mid seventies - I got my first Lamy (a plastic school-level rollerball) in the mid-eighties. Couldn't tell you about the US and other markets though.

 

 

 

 

There's a 1979 catalogue for download in the Lamy links section (along with the 1997 one). It doesn't genderise the pens at all:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/279845-interesting-l-a-m-y-links/?p=3204303

Thank you for this link! Yes, you're right. Maybe it was thought of as a less gender specific pen?

[AidenMark]

Thank you for this link! Yes, you're right. Maybe it was thought of as a less gender specific pen?

 

Lamy is a rather male brand, isn't it?

 

Marketing to male 'decision makers' in the late 60s shouldn't surprise us: these are expensive items and very few women held well paid jobs at that time. Yet Lamy's austere black and silver metallic aesthetic does seem to pander to exclusively male taste in a way that other brands (Montblanc, Waterman, Pelekan ...) don't.

 

Clearly there are exceptions in the line-up like the jolly Safari family and the elitist (and perhaps slightly patronising) Lamy Lady. The Lamy Studio pen seems to have a enthusiastic female following.

 

Yet if Lamy were trying to appeal to women with the glowering-gothik Imporium, the muscly Aion or the street-fighting Dialog3 then they seem to have missed the mark.

[Arstook]

A couple more images from Dietmar Geyer's Collecting Writing Instruments.

 

Early Lamy 2000 counter POS:

 

 

 

I'm guessing this is and early-mid eighties advert:

 

 

Thanks for the link! The pictures shine a little more light on the history of the Lamy 2000. I love the little marketing touch in the Lamy 2000 ad display where it says the nib is guaranteed by the company until the year 2000! The counter display still shows the plexiglaswürfel (plexiglass-cube) pen stand that was marketed as part of the desk set in the 1969 ad.

 

It seems by the early 80s, Lamy had a presence in Europe and the United States. By that time, it also seems that Lamy was circling away from explicitly marketing the 2000 to males. I did some more research and found Lamy mentioned in an article from a local American newspaper, the Reading Eagle in 1983. The article comments on the renaissance of the fountain pen and introduces some of the popular brands. It says, "...almost as well regarded as the Montblanc, and at a much lower price, is the Lamy 2000 ($65), also made in West Germany...The functional, high-tech lines of the 2000 make it a best seller among artists, architects, and at least one negotiator, Henry Kissinger." It sounds like maybe the 2000's reputed popularity with creative types encouraged Lamy to emphasize its aesthetic appeal and design philosophy in its marketing. Perhaps it was the sales figures that got the company to change its intended target audience from the executive boardroom man to the creatively-minded professional?

 

Citation: "Fat, Not Thin, is the Last Word in Fountain Pens of Distinction," Reading Eagle, June 21, 1983.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19830621&id=2OYxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FOQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4345,157474

Edited April 27, 2018 by Arstook