Picasso 89 Big Executive Signature Fountain Pen

[jebib]

I posted earlier that I had jumped the broom purchasing this pen. A member teased me asking if I married the pen. Well it came in the mail today, and my response is not yet. The jumping the broom part was my paying over $100 for a Chinese pen. Unfortunately, this was the only area where the pen didn't deliver. In other words no 14k nib. I'm going through eBay now to contact the seller to see if such a thing as a 14k pen exists. Everything else about the pen is quite stellar for the price point. The clip is the only item that looks a little substandard, for an exceptional deal that is, as fit and finish are pretty nice. As a

"Western pen" with a steel nib it measures up pretty nice. I'm just not sure if I just want to pay retail in this case. If the pen has a 14k nib and it performs well, this pen could be a real gem. I'll bore you again when I get the issue resolved with the vendor and we see if I get the 14k version or I return the pen.

[frenchguy86]

I have the old version of the Picasso 90(same 14k nib), I think I paid 25 bucks for it on a Japanese auction site. My pen as quite some flex but was scratchy out of the box. I hope newer ones from the 14K Picasso line are now better. Mine look good but ran in some trouble with the build quality, I had to repair the clip among the several other things that went wrong with the pen over time...

 

My Duke 14k is actually better and smoother out of the box, plus official msrp for the duke is half the price asked for the top of the line Picasso products(the 14k line). Only thing both of those Chinese, top of their line pen, have in common is the excellent packaging and box. They came with really nice leather pouch for the pen and other goodies...

Edited March 13, 2014 by frenchguy86

[ccvinylman]

Having purchased recently a Picasso 932 Georges Braque Commemoration [sic] fountain pen with a P166 steel nib, and being more than satisfied with its fit, finish, and feel, I ordered another one from the same eBay seller and am awaiting its arrival. The first pen arrived in Pittsburgh from China in a mere nine days! The pen I'm expecting in the mail any day now is also a Georges Braque FP, but its color, design, and nib (the P164) are all a bit different.

 

As for how it writes, I compare it to a Duke FP I've had for a couple years now. The Duke, which cost about eight times more than the Picasso, has what I call a metallic feel and sound when it lays down its ink. It's hard to describe, but the sound is not unpleasant, just different from the sound and feel of my other FPs, of which I have a couple dozen. Does either one write as smooth as butter? No. Is writing with either pen unpleasant in any way? No. The continuum of writing pleasure for each FP fan is a funny and unpredictable thing. The fanatic (aka lunatic) fringe FP-ers swear there are light years of differences between one pen and another, but the conservative and less effusive pen aficionados enjoy what each pen has to offer, regardless of its cost, $20 (or less!) or $2000 (or more).

 

I paid about $25, including shipping, for my Picasso Georges Braque pens. The space on the enjoyment continuum between the pleasure I derive from the Picassos as compared to the pleasure I derive from my most expensive pens is very small indeed. My Waterman Exception (slim) and my Cross Pinnacle Peacock both have very smooth-writing 18K medium nibs, but I do not necessary reach for them each time I use a fountain pen. The pens are simply different than the Picassos, and as the advertising slogan goes, "Different is good!"

 

Will the Picassos fare as well in the long run as I suspect my Watermans and Crosses will? I don't know. It's too soon to tell. Even if the finish on the barrel, the cap, and the nib on the Picassos begin to fade prematurely, what have I lost? The writing quality of the nib will still be the same, if not better, than when I purchased them. Call me an optimist if you will, or a secretly envious and covetous pen collector who wants to think a twenty-buck pen is as good as a two-thousand-buck pen simply because he can't afford the latter. That's OK. I have thick skin. And who knows, maybe in the long run I'll change my tune and come down on the side of the pens with the snooty cache and big price tags. We'll see.

[frenchguy86]

Picasso build quality isn't great but in a weird way: I would expect the colorful design to wear down but that's not the case and after several years it's still in a perfect shape. Problems are the gold clip on the cap and the ring on the barrel that deteriorate heavily. Same goes with some bad choice: the plastic cap threads goes on gold metal threads on the barrel. That means after some use the gold of the barrel threads also comes of...

 

I paid more for my Duke Opera rhythm(14k) but both share same msrp. With the duke opera I think you get a lot more in product quality.