Monocle Magazine Supplement On Timekeeping And Penmanship

[catbert]

The April 2016 issue of Monocle magazine includes ‘Our debut timekeeping and penmanship supplement … a 32-page special on why it’s all in the wrist’. For those unfamiliar with the publication, Monocle bills itself as ‘A briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design’.

Most of the supplement is devoted to watches and watchmakers, including five full-page watch ads. On the penmanship side, an essay by Simon Garfield, author of Just My Type (on typography), extols the virtues of writing with pen and paper and there are two double-page pictorials of pens and stationery.

Part of the intro, to give an idea of the tone: 'The flourish of a poised* pen or, if you're more artsy, the sweep of a swish pencil across a clean white page: these finer nuances are what it's all about. Here's a sharp edit of desk accessories and writing implements to make sure your workspace looks as smart as you do.' (*Actually it says 'posied', one of several typos.)

I count eight fountain pens among the 29 writing instruments depicted:

Omas Tokyo

Montegrappa NeroUno

Hermes Nautilus

Kaweco AC Sport

unidentified Waterman (Expert?)

Faber-Castell Ambition

Lamy 2000

Montegrappa NeroUno Linea

Clearly someone at Monocle really likes Montegrappa.

Notable ballpoints include:

Montblanc M

S.T. Dupont Classique

Lamy Pico

Sailor Professional Gear

two unidentified Sheaffers

two unidentified Crosses

There's just one pen advertisement - a full page by Lamy. Copy reads:

Happy Anniversary!

1966-2016

50 years of Lamy design.

Celebrating a timeless icon.

Lamy 2000

Design. Made in Germany.

The image appears to be a standard makrolon Lamy 2000 with coloured confetti falling all around. Make of that what you will.

[Papamud]

I'm also a burgeoning watch collector, and my other favourite forum is watchuseek. On that forum, they have a board dedicated to pens, which is full of gorgeous stuff, and they also have http://forums.watchuseek.com/f221/pen-watch-combo-thread-442601.html this!

It's fun perusing...

[catbert]

I'm also a burgeoning watch collector, and my other favourite forum is watchuseek. On that forum, they have a board dedicated to pens, which is full of gorgeous stuff, and they also have http://forums.watchuseek.com/f221/pen-watch-combo-thread-442601.html this!

 

It's fun perusing...

 

Interesting link - thanks.

Fortunately for my wallet, I’m a one-watch person in the same way I used to be a one-pen person. Except now I’ve got far too many pens and hardly ever wear a watch.

I guess the point I didn’t articulate in posting about the Monocle supplement (these things often occur only in retrospect) is how two equally anachronistic devices have diverged in ‘mainstream’ consciousness, at least as measured by how many pages of ads they support, and how much knowledge and detail was devoted to one (the watches) and how little to the other.

That, and Lamy not giving any clues re the 50th anniversary 2000.