Jump to content

Waterman Still All Made In France?


max dog

Recommended Posts

I asked Vaibhav Mehadiratta, our Moderator from India:

 

 

Only certain body parts are made in India.
Nibs still are from France.

Quality for Waterman is top notch. Sad part is mostly Medium nib available.

Customer service is also great

 

D.ick

~

KEEP SAFE, WEAR A MASK, KEEP A DISTANCE.

Freedom exists by virtue of self limitation.

~

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 34
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Left FPN

    9

  • max dog

    6

  • sciumbasci

    3

  • Tseg

    2

We would still like to see a sample.

 

A search through 790 topics on FPN regional sub section, India, revealed nothing on Waterman pens and more to the point no pictures.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I have heard that Luxor does manufacturing in India for Parker. Now, both Parker and Waterman have the same parent company, NewellRubbermaid. It makes sense they would have a contract with Waterman as well.

 

Doesn't mean they do, but logically it does make sense. But others know more than I. Just thinking out loud/connecting the dots here.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

India has very high import taxes. One of the reasons is that it is a way to encourage foreign (to India) companies to manufacture locally. Even Apple is setting up manufacturing plants in India so that they can sell iPhones to the Indian market. In a previous company that had offices in India we would have some of the Indian software engineers carry several Apple laptops back to the Bangalore office since it was a lot cheaper than having them buy them locally. These laptops traveled from China, to California then back to India. This is a bit silly but bottom line was a lot cheaper that way.

 

My guess is that since Waterman is selling just the nibs it allows Luxor to sell the whole pen for a lot cheaper than if they had to import the pen with the tariff on the full retail price.

 

I've considered getting Parker Ink from India due to the lower price, but apparently the quality is very variable so I'll probably get Camlin ink instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I buy Apple products made in China, designed in California and built to a contracted specification. Adding a couple more, I have American shoes made in Vietnam and a German car built in Romania. I think I have some machine tools made in India. I do not see the fact of manufacture in country X as a disqualification, depending on how good is the native design and how good the subcontractor and contract management.

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Praxis, I hear you. I guess part of the concern is that since the target market is India itself it might mean that the QC might be a lot more lenient than if Waterman was trying to sell the pens back to occidental market where the quality expectation would be higher. AFAIK the Noodler's pens are made in India and I mostly hear very positive reviews about them. I'm personally quite happy with the Ahab. On the other hand I have a set of Camlin pens that leak like crazy, but I blame the Indian eBay seller to swap horrible italic nibs in them. I drive a Korean car and love it, but it will take a lot of improvements before I would even consider driving a Tata.

 

For these Waterman's, I don't know, the fact that they are not low cost suggest that they are still intended for the high end market in India and might actually get more hand inspection time than a french made pen would.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I have my Carene arriving tomorrow... and reviews on this pen far and wide are outstanding. To my surprise I came across this pen on a well-known on-line retailer site and the reviews were very sub-standard. As I was reading comments there were some mentions of the pen being made in India... I then realized I was on the Indian on-line retailer's site.

 

The most common complaint (and VERY common) was around leaking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I have my Carene arriving tomorrow... and reviews on this pen far and wide are outstanding. To my surprise I came across this pen on a well-known on-line retailer site and the reviews were very sub-standard. As I was reading comments there were some mentions of the pen being made in India... I then realized I was on the Indian on-line retailer's site.

 

The most common complaint (and VERY common) was around leaking.

The Made in India issue was never fully resolved to my satisfaction.

 

Did you ever receive the Carene and if so perhaps you could post some pictures.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Made in India issue was never fully resolved to my satisfaction.

 

Did you ever receive the Carene and if so perhaps you could post some pictures.

 

To clarify, I looked for this pen thinking I was on the US site, but was on the India site and saw the poor reviews. After that I found the US site with glowing reviews of the pen. This is where I made the purchase.

Edited by Tseg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
On 1/11/2018 at 4:40 AM, max dog said:

There is a big sticker on the box the pen came in and says:

 

"Manufactured by: Luxor Writing Instruments Pvt. Ltd, Sidicul, Ranipur, Hartdwar, Uttrarakhand...

Waterman is a registered trademark of Europe Brands SARL, or the affiliates and is used in India/Nepal by Luxor Writing Instruments Ltd., by their permission. "

"Month and Year of manufacture: 03/2017"

 

The pen was bought on Amazon Canada from I guess an Indian seller.

 

So in India, Waterman pens are made by Luxor Writing Instruments Ltd in India?

Does this sound legit?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Sounds like a total scam by Luxor, possibly with some collusion by the parent corporation of Waterman.  Caveat emptor still rules.  When I'm considering more modern Watermans, I'll be sure to check where they were made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...