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Relaunches Of Iconic Vintage Models


como

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In my view if a brand is "revived" properly then it should have the feel of the original modernized to match todays styles. I am going by looks alone and not the writing properties of each brand. Both conway stewart and kaweco pens feels right. They do not feel out of place or too different to their originals. Thy looks basically like an updated version that the original company would make for today's market.

 

A Bad example would be Esterbrook. They do feel completely out of place when compared to the original and doesn't feel like something the original company would make if they didn't go bust. Shape, colors, overall feel looks all out of place. They may be attractive pens but it is very unlikely for someone to pick up a modern pen and think that it looks like a vintage esterbrook.

 

Onoto pens also feel a bit out of place when compared to the styling of the original but its neither here no there. it has some cues to the original, but also have some design cues from other brands such as croxley. When you look at a CS it looks very much like any CS. As long as it doesn't have a flag nib. Flag nib kills the look of it.

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When you look at a CS it looks very much like any CS. As long as it doesn't have a flag nib. Flag nib kills the look of it.

:thumbup:

 

I’m glad that it’s not just me who gets put-off by that nib-branding.

 

OK, the brand is ‘Bespoke British Pens’, so I can understand why they’ve gone for using a Union Flag in the branding, but I think that the previous iteration of Conway Stewart nibs was far more attractive.

It looked much ‘classier’. Which is something that I want from a pen at their price point.

 

Actually, I have just looked at ConwayStewart.com, and many of their pens seem to be showing a different, more-traditional ‘Conway Stewart’ branding on their nibs instead of the flag.

E.g. Series 100 in ‘Honey Noire’ finish.

Foul in clear conditions, but handsome in the fog.

mini-postcard-exc.png

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​So, youre saying that Bexley have humbled their original Prometheus, and pecked out its liver...? ;)

Maybe more like New Coke in a can vs Original Coke in a glass bottle.

If you want less blah, blah, blah and more pictures, follow me on Instagram!

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Nice looker: Tibaldi N60 but purists may think/feel otherwise.

 

Maybe that is the crux, how pure are these relaunches/continuations?

 

What's the tipping point to take the user back to nostalgia, inner beauty or outer beauty?

 

Well maybe it's all just milking the brand to satisfy the fan collectors or convert new ones back to the good old days.

 

Personally, I enjoy the Parker Duofold, Kaweco Sport, Noodler's Boston Safety and Pelikan M101N

 

I would also love to see Parker 51 Empire limited edition (2002) go affordable/available mainstream in the 2020s

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Given the clarification of criteria, we need to add Waterman Man 100 Patrician to the list, even though it has been out of production for over twenty years. On introduction it harked back to a pen fifty years earlier.

 

edit:added a sentence

Edited by praxim

X

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Yes.

The original company was formed in 1905, but the ballpoint boom meant that it died in the 1970s.

A new ‘Conway Stewart’ was formed in the 1990s, but it died in 2014.

’Bespoke British Pens’ bought the name and resurrected ‘Conway Stewart’ in the UK shortly after that.

 

’Conway Stewart America’ is indeed a different company.

Foul in clear conditions, but handsome in the fog.

mini-postcard-exc.png

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I don’t consider the CS American the continuation of CS, as I feel that CS is a very British company and there never was a CS USA. Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

Yes.

The original company was formed in 1905, but the ballpoint boom meant that it died in the 1970s.

A new ‘Conway Stewart’ was formed in the 1990s, but it died in 2014.

’Bespoke British Pens’ bought the name and resurrected ‘Conway Stewart’ in the UK shortly after that.

 

’Conway Stewart America’ is indeed a different company.

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​So, you’re saying that Bexley have humbled their original Prometheus, and pecked out its liver...? ;)

It's one of those cases in which the original pen was probably in another league but also considerably more expensive. The relaunched Prometheus is still a rather nice looking pen and one that performs quite well. The filling system is converter, certainly a piston filler would have been better (although I heard that the Bexley pistons tended to have issues, not sure in the Prometheus), but still it's a practical filling system, and the nib is a size 6 which is standard (Jowo) and can be changed to gold if wanted. No doubt I would have liked to try one of those size 8!

A relaunched Prometheus

fpn_1601406447__p1150436-3_bexley_promet

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Perhaps not iconic, but kind of interesting.

 

Bexley rolled out a piston filler called the Prometheus with a #8 gold nib. Maybe about 15 years later Bexley rolled out a model called the Prometheus that is a C/C pen and used a #6 steel nib. The two pens look a lot alike, especially capped. i would have thought it would have been called the Prometheus 2 to avoid confusion, but no.

BTW do you have a picture of the Prometheus with the size 8 nib, Zaddick?

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Thank you all for your comments! It seems that I can no longer edit my original post, so here is what I gathered so far up until Post #33.

American:

Parker Duofold Big Red/Orange

Parker 51

Sheaffer Legacy

Wahl Eversharp Skyline

Wahl Eversharp Decoband

Wahl Eversharp Signature

Conklin Crescent Filler

Waterman Man 100 Patrician

 

British:

Conway Stewart 58

Conway Stewart 100

Onoto Magna

Italian:

Omas Gentleman 1930

Omas Dama (Do you agree?)

Aurora Internazionale

Tibaldi N60

 

German:

Pelikan M101N
Pelikan M120

Pelikan “Originals of Their Time”

Kaweco Sport

Kaweco Dia2

 

Mentioned but not sure if they belong to this category:

Esterbrook (They don’t look like the originals?)

Noodler’s Boston Safety (Noodler is a modern new company)

Dunn (not iconic)

Modern Mabie Todd (too ugly)

 

It’s been a good exercise as I also learned something new!

A recent thread got me thinking of examples of successful modern relaunches of vintage iconic fountain pen models. The related thread is:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/355785-a-new-139-its-a-no-brainer-or-is-it/

Thank you, zaddick, for provoking my thoughts.

 

I am talking about the near replicas and unmistakeable throwbacks to their original vintage models with same name and style. Here are the ones that quickly came to my mind:

 

1. Parker Duofold Big Red;

2. Aurora Internazionale;

3. Pelikan 100N;

4. Omas Gentleman;

5. Conway Stewart No.58 and No.100;

6. Onoto Magna.

 

What are others that you can think of? I hope you enjoy this topic. My apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere on FPN.

Edited by como
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It's one of those cases in which the original pen was probably in another league but also considerably more expensive. The relaunched Prometheus is still a rather nice looking pen and one that performs quite well.

In my post I was only making a (not-very-good) joke. I based it on the legendary actions of the eponymous Titan, and what the legend tells us about how Zeus eventually took revenge against him.

 

If anybody can bear me making another attempt, I could sum-up Zeus’ view of Prometheus in the legend by saying “He’s not ‘the Messiah’; he’s a very naughty boy!”

 

Anybody?

No?

 

I’ll get me coat....

;)

Foul in clear conditions, but handsome in the fog.

mini-postcard-exc.png

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Absolutely! Thank you, mana. zaddick even said so, but due to my lack of knowledge of Pelikan models, I thought he merely mentioned a bunch of pens and didn’t realize that that was the series name :D . I have edited the above list in my post #31.

Como, you missed the Pelikans Originals Of Their Time > https://thepelikansperch.com/2020/01/31/pelikan-originals-of-their-time/

And the 120 should be M120 ;)

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In my post I was only making a (not-very-good) joke. I based it on the legendary actions of the eponymous Titan, and what the legend tells us about how Zeus eventually took revenge against him.

 

If anybody can bear me making another attempt, I could sum-up Zeus’ view of Prometheus in the legend by saying “He’s not ‘the Messiah’; he’s a very naughty boy!”

 

Anybody?

No?

 

I’ll get me coat....

;)

:lol: just realized... (but only because you said so... don't we have the emoticon with the grin here?)

 

My comment on the Prometheus stands valid, sometimes the remakes are tragic...

Edited by sansenri
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BTW do you have a picture of the Prometheus with the size 8 nib, Zaddick?

 

These photos are a modern pen is smoke vs a Bexley Gaston Holiday with is a customized Prometheus

 

fpn_1601497700__20180108_112531_resized.

 

fpn_1601497731__20180108_112716_resized.

 

fpn_1601497766__20180108_112732_resized.

 

fpn_1601497800__20180108_112603_resized.

If you want less blah, blah, blah and more pictures, follow me on Instagram!

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one more just came to my mind.

Montegrappa had a pen called Elmo made in Celluloid just after the war (which looks somewhat similar to an Omas Ogiva in shape).

I am not sure whether they had an even earlier pen called Elmo (they made safety pens earlier).

In any case they did a remake several years ago which is nice, but clearly not as nice as the preceding Elmo in celluloid.

This is the second Elmo in resin, the nib is nonetheless 18k.

fpn_1601498281__p1150514-3_montegrappa_e

 

There is now a new Elmo out (the 01) in resin and with steel nib, which does not look terrible, but has such a pronounced step that it would never make friends with my fingers...

Edited by sansenri
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Thank you all for your comments! It seems that I can no longer edit my original post, so here is what I gathered so far up until Post #33.

American:

Parker Duofold Big Red/Orange

Parker 51

Sheaffer Legacy

Wahl Eversharp Skyline

Wahl Eversharp Decoband

Wahl Eversharp Signature

Conklin Crescent Filler

Waterman Man 100 Patrician

 

British:

Conway Stewart 58

Conway Stewart 100

Onoto Magna

 

Italian:

Omas Gentleman 1930

Omas Dama (Do you agree?)

Aurora Internazionale

Tibaldi N60

 

German:

Pelikan M101N

Pelikan M120

Pelikan “Originals of Their Time”

Kaweco Sport

Kaweco Dia2

 

Mentioned but not sure if they belong to this category:

Esterbrook (They don’t look like the originals?)

Noodler’s Boston Safety (Noodler is a modern new company)

Dunn (not iconic)

Modern Mabie Todd (too ugly)

 

It’s been a good exercise as I also learned something new!

 

 

With regards to the Omas pens, it's complex. Omas made continuous slight modifications to its pens, but they were subtle so much that it's often difficult to distinguish them. To confuse us more they also kept changing names slightly and then going back to them.

For example the Gentlemen was a Paragon size faceted pen in celluloid, years later Omas switched to resin and called the pen Gentleman, but it's difficult to state that this was a relaunch, it was the same pen in resin.

When Omas redesigned its pens in a notable way was towards the end of it's life, when they modified the Paragon and the Milord.

In that case the differences were evident, and the direction taken by Omas was to make an even higher quality pen if possible (and more expensive!)

This is one case where the debate is really open, I for one prefer the earlier models, but there are people who would never give up their modern Paragon or Milord (especially when in arco celluloid...).

I own only one new Milord, the Rosewood version, which looks very different from the earlier celluloid/resin Milords.

fpn_1601499833__p1160590-3_omas_milord_a

 

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