New Montblanc pen designs; Rambling observations

[Arcadian]

7 hours ago, jmccarty3 said:

I agree that the Hemingway and Christie are amazing. I am very fortunate to have both. I recently bought the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pictured above, primarily because I love Sherlock Holmes, but also because I was able to get a reasonable price on a mint pen with an EF nib. Well, the nib is quite satisfactory, but the pen does not post, and the unposted pen is rather short for my hand. MBs that don't post are rather uncommon, so I was very unpleasantly surprised.

 

I have the same problem. Unfortunately it seems most of their WE, Great Characters and Masters editions do not post. I cannot for the life of me understand why. It really limits the number of people who are able to have a satisfactory writing experience with the pens. 

 

 - P. 

[stric75]

@Arcadian I’m beginning to think that they were never designed to be functional writing instruments, but rather impractical status symbols. 

[kazoolaw]

There is an ongoing discussion regarding posted vs not posted, suggesting there is a market of some size for pens that don’t post.

[krayzie]

Time to switch to a Lamy 2000. Bauhaus functional design with an ink window and a piston filler made out of polycarbonate and stainless steel.

 

The Montblanc M was close but no cigar, they went out of their way to make it only take MB cartridges and the cap couldn't post (artificial market segmentation). It's less functional out of the box than a 20 bucks Safari. Having said that I'm gonna carry the M rollerball to work where the cap could actually post starting next week.

 

MB has the exact same problem as Rolex in that they don't know how to innovate. Titanium dive watch casings almost 50 years too late since the Seiko Tuna.

[dbs]

7 hours ago, krayzie said:

MB has the exact same problem as Rolex in that they don't know how to innovate. Titanium dive watch casings almost 50 years too late since the Seiko Tuna.

 

Guaranteed 2sec/day for 5 years blows Seiko 12000 nautical miles away, in fact, not only Seiko, but any mechanical watch on this planet

[Mercian]

3 minutes ago, dbs said:

 

Guaranteed 2sec/day for 5 years blows Seiko 12000 nautical miles away, in fact, not only Seiko, but any mechanical watch on this planet

Folks who prioritise only accuracy in their watches would at this point nominate any cheap quartz watch one might care to mention, or perhaps go on to nominate ones that have been made to be - and are certified as - especially accurate.
In comparison to either, even a Rolex is a ‘hopelessly-inaccurate’ and ‘sloppy’ way to keep track of time.

 

Every discretionary-purchase choice entails compromises; whether of form over function; one particular function over another, ‘value for money’; weight/comfort over ‘style’, or; any other possible consideration.

 

No one pen, ink, watch, car, sneaker, jacket, shirt, guitar, or whatever, is ‘better’ at everything than every other product in its class.

Each of us does (I hope) his or her own research into any ‘discretionary purchase’ product, and then makes an informed decision about which one s/he considers to offer the ‘best’ compromise across all the ‘performance categories’ that matter to her/him.

 

And, having done that research, and made that informed decision, each of us will then make the right decision for him/her.

 

Debating matters of personal taste is, after all, famously an example of vanity, and a chasing-after the wind.

[krayzie]

19 hours ago, dbs said:

 

Guaranteed 2sec/day for 5 years blows Seiko 12000 nautical miles away, in fact, not only Seiko, but any mechanical watch on this planet

 

I have a Spring Drive Tuna that's even more accurate than a silicon hairspring movement, and not even Zenith can get Rolex a seconds hand that's more smooth than that. The Japanese has had semiconductor manufacturing tech on escapements (i.e. Citizen LIGA and Seiko MEMS) at least a decade prior to Rolex Chronergy. Now you gonna tell me you can physically dive more than 500m lol!