Lamy Imporium - Black/gold

[Owner of a Lonely Heart]

Thanks! I wanted to get my review out there so it may help others in their choices

[FOUR X FOUR]

I'm not crazy about the looks of it. I do like the black nib, though. I've seen plenty of pens that I don't like at first. So maybe I'll change my mind

[4lex]

I love this design! Thank you for a really informative review.

Can I just ask, if you are using a converter on this pen, is ink level clearly visible?

I am asking because on Lamy Dialog 3 (if I remember correctly) the converter was so deep that I couldn't see how much ink there is left without taking the converter out.

Thanks.

[LeonW]

Thanks, I should have avoided this review I fear.

[praxim]

Thanks, I was looking forward to a review of this pen! The Persona seems to have (among other differences) better integrated but very sharp threads, which allow for the cap to unscew in half a turn. How is it with the Imporium?

Well it actually takes about 2 turns to remove the cap so quite a bit of turning actually.

 

I have not noticed this commented upon elsewhere, so here I go.

 

Yes the Imporium takes two turns to remove the cap. At the moment I have seven other pens with screw caps, being: Montblanc 149, four Waterman 52 variants, and two Onotos. Aside from the Imporium, every one of those seven pens unscrews in one turn or lesser movement.

 

Does anyone have any idea why Lamy chose two turns rather than the common one turn to open? A form of inverse status-seeking*, perhaps? Are there other pens which so expend one's time to no obvious purpose?

 

* Like sexual selection, showy behaviours which make survival more difficult demonstrate additional fitness given one survives with the handicap. See peacocks, for one example among many. By analogy, a person who can afford leisure to open their Lamy Imporium must therefore be in control.

[Namo]

 

I have not noticed this commented upon elsewhere, so here I go.

 

Yes the Imporium takes two turns to remove the cap. At the moment I have seven other pens with screw caps, being: Montblanc 149, four Waterman 52 variants, and two Onotos. Aside from the Imporium, every one of those seven pens unscrews in one turn or lesser movement.

 

Does anyone have any idea why Lamy chose two turns rather than the common one turn to open? A form of inverse status-seeking*, perhaps? Are there other pens which so expend one's time to no obvious purpose?

 

* Like sexual selection, showy behaviours which make survival more difficult demonstrate additional fitness given one survives with the handicap. See peacocks, for one example among many. By analogy, a person who can afford leisure to open their Lamy Imporium must therefore be in control.

I don't know if this is the answer, but my Persona's cap sometimes unscrews itself. Maybe Lamy has been overreacting? Some Pelikans I've owned also had or have this problem.

Another answer might be that the threads of the Persona are very sharp, up to the point of being a problem if you happen to your pen there

Edited July 20, 2016 by Namo

[Jan Mathijs Rijck]

On 7/20/2016 at 11:34 AM, praxim said:

 

I have not noticed this commented upon elsewhere, so here I go.

 

Yes the Imporium takes two turns to remove the cap. At the moment I have seven other pens with screw caps, being: Montblanc 149, four Waterman 52 variants, and two Onotos. Aside from the Imporium, every one of those seven pens unscrews in one turn or lesser movement.

I had a very cursory look through my collection and found very different results:
- Noodler's Boston safety pen - 3 1/2 rotations
- Kaweco liliput copper - 3 1/3 rotations 
- Otto Hutt Design 04 - 3 1/4 turns
- Opus 88 Omar clear Demonstrator - 3 rotations
- Noodler's Ahab Demonstrator - 2 1/3 rotations 
- Parker Duofold Centennial Big Red - 1 2/3 rotations 
- many others with only 1 or less rotations, from the above mentioned manufacturers and others.

 

I can't see any logic in this, because it's not only pocket pens that have a long thread. The Kaweco Sport, perhaps the most classic pocket pen - "only" 1 1/3 rotations; Opus 88, Otto Hutt 04 or Parker Duofold, on the other hand, are by no means pocket pens.
Even within one company, the systems are very different. My Otto Hutt Design 02 has only 1 1/4 rotations; Noodler's Neponset and Triple Tail each have only 1 1/2 rotations.

[Jan Mathijs Rijck]

On 10/16/2015 at 8:55 PM, Owner of a Lonely Heart said:

WEIGHT AND DIMENSIONS 9/10

 

The Imporium measures:

 

- 142 mm capped

- 123 mm un-capped

 

(…)

I find the balance to be excellent with this pen un-posted. the pen does not really post so I would not recommend it and the pen is fairly long un-capped anyhow. I do wish that the pen posted deeper and securely as attempting to do so does not yield a secure fit and the pen becomes very back-heavy. Not really an issue for me though.

 

(…)

 

COST AND VALUE 8/10

 

This pen is expensive. The most expensive LAMY there is actually if I recall, but that does not mean it isn't a good value. This is an amazing pen and is the coolest thing out there in my opinion right now. The pen writes great, and the modern materials used on this pen give it a sort of "cool" status that I like. You may be paying a lot for the materials but the finished product more than satisfies me for what I payed. If you look around you can find this pen for less than 300 EUR if you are outside the EU and avoid VAT. If you are in Europe it may be hard as around 350-375 EUR is what I have seen.

 

Many thanks to Owner of a lonely heart for this wonderful review.

 

I thought about buying an Imporium for a very long time (I want to say five years). On the one hand, I always like to own the flagship pen of a company (Question: Which is the flagship pen of Lamy? The Dialog 3, the 2000 or the Imporium?), on the other hand it seemed overpriced to me (current list price in Germany 380€). Now I could get one for 200€ and there was still some Christmas money left....

I agree with Owner of a lonely heart's review on almost everything, it's a wonderful, classy pen, really worth the money.

However, I have two differences in my opinion:

1) personally, I find it a bit short at 123mm, fountain pens of 130mm or more fit my big hands better.
Surprisingly, when capped at 142mm, it is exactly the same size as a Lamy aion (but infinitely more elegant...), which, however, measures 139mm when uncapped. I therefore use the Imporium posted, which brings us to the second point:

2) My Imporium posted safely (maybe there was a small change in design in the last 5 years?), the balance also posted is still excellent for me, so it works perfectly for my writing behaviour.