Are All Waterman Pens Still Made In France?

[rochester21]

Salutations. I think that all the waterman pens i had until now were french-made, even if not all of them had the "Made in France" inscription.

 

However, recently i`m starting to wonder if all models are still locally produced today. For instance, i have a fairly expensive Charleston set, however it doesn`t say anywhere where it was produced. I only have a bar code to figure what`s what.

 

Is it about a marketing thing or a undisclosed fact?

 

http://i58.tinypic.com/2lu44fl.jpg

Edited March 31, 2014 by rochester21

[TwelveDrawings]

Salutations. I think that all the waterman pens i had until now were french-made, even if not all of them had the "Made in France" inscription.

 

However, recently i`m starting to wonder if all models are still locally produced today. For instance, i have a fairly expensive Charleston set, however it doesn`t say anywhere where it was produced. I only have a bar code to figure what`s what.

 

Is it about a marketing thing or a undisclosed fact?

 

http://i58.tinypic.com/2lu44fl.jpg

Hello to you Rochester21.

 

I notice no one has answered just yet, so I will offer an opinion until you hear from someone who has some hard facts. You've asked a particularly important question since the "France" stamp has long been a signature on the particular Waterman pens I own. I do not know the answer to your question, but can offer a clue or two. In 1987, the Waterman company was bought by Gillette. Then in 2001, the Waterman line was sold to mega-corporation Rubbermaid-Newell. That company learned a painful lesson about avoiding Chinese manufacturing choices. Walmart told them to use China or get out of the stores altogether. R-Newell finally caved and closed many of its domestic plants.

 

China is already a source of many impressive-looking and incredibly inexpensive pens (such as Hero). There is no doubt they could manufacture any pen that Waterman offers, if given the chance. I have never seen anyone post here who actually worked inside the Waterman company, so, I can only offer the following conjecture. Since Waterman was purchased outright by R-Newell, the name, the tooling, and the right to manufacture can be shifted to anywhere in the world they choose. As stated above, R-Newll is now quick to send manufacturing orders to China. The fact that the Waterman box label does not list the country of manufacture raised the plausible explanation that they would not want to reveal the truth if the venerable pens are manufactured in China. But to be fair, I'm not certain the box ever said, "Made in France", so I defer to you on that point.

 

Hope that helps, although conjecture is never as valuable as simple facts. I hope you get a reply with more solid information. — TwelveDrawings.com

 

P.S. You may have heard that the bar code number will reveal the country of manufacture. However, the digits associated with country of origin don't necessarily specify where the product was manufactured, but rather where the bar code itself was registered. So, for example, a product manufactured in China and sold in France could have an EAN-13 bar code identifying it as a "French" product.

Edited April 1, 2014 by TwelveDrawings

[Left FPN]

Some Waterman Deluxe Blue boxes have Made in Taiwan printed on their bottoms. I have never been 100% sure if that means the box itself or the pen inside. I have a couple myself.

 

And we all know where Apple products are manufacture.

[RMN]

Have a look at this topic:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/252037-waterman-parker-plants-in-france/

 

Most of it is conjecture, though...

 

D.ick

[MisterP]

I am 99% certain that all Waterman pens are still made in the Nantes plant (in France). It is possible that some refills and packaging materials may come from the far east, and some packaging activity is done in low cost countries in Europe.

But the pens are still made in France.

[jebib]

99%? Viva La France!