Waterman Allure and Parker Vector XL

[PorsuMobster]

So, i have had the Waterman Allure for some time and it is a great little pen, nothing fancy but metal body and a nice fine point metal nib. The pelikan logo seems to be very superficially engrave but nothing mayor. It writes well doesnt get dry, not a super fine point but very good. and of course cheap at 10-15$.  Good german? engineering. Last month i bought the Parker Vector XL. It seem well made... the M nib was way to broad for my taste, but what really surprise me was that it is exactly the same pen as the Waterman, Exactly the same. very few details are different and all are cosmetic. So i checked the box and to my surprise it was a Parker Pen made in china. ( which i didnt knew they did). So of course the waterman allure most also be made in china. The allure is a great pen regardless but i dont like the trend of not disclosing the origin. I returned the Vector XL because i really didnt liked the nib. In conclusion Waterman and Parker make the same model from a manufacturer in china, but the waterman nib is better. 

 

[jchch1950]

Can you post pictures? Thanks.

[PorsuMobster]

 

There are some cosmetic changes but they are perfectly matched in all dimensions.  the only difference between them was that the grip section was translucent in the vector xl, the clip had the arrow shape, and the waterman has a metal band on the cap. but thats it.

[jchch1950]

Parker and Waterman are sharing more than the same parent company.Thanks for the information and the Photos.😃

[AGF]

Yes, they look very similar. But I appreciate that the Parker Vector XL has a transparent section, and this allows a little ink window, which I always appreciate in fountain pens. The Waterman Allure does not have this ink window. I wonder if the barrels can be swapped from Waterman Allure to Parker Vector XL. Have you tried it? I don't have a Allure right now.

 

Yesterday I got the Parker Vector XL with a F nib. And it really writes very well. The steel F nib is very good. Other Waterman models, like the Kultur (F nib), write very similar, and very well.

 

Yes, I guess they are all made in China. But the Parker Vector XL is not a "Chinese" model in the bad sense of the expression. The Parker Vector XL is, for my taste, much more better than the old Vector model (they are very different models). And of course, there are very good Chinese brands, like Penbbs. If I compare this Parker Vector XL with my Penbbs 309 (with the standard Penbbs nib), I would say that both are good pens, with good fine steel nibs, but the Parker Vector XL is cheaper, and the metal barrel and cap makes the Parker one appear as a more qualitative fountain pen. On the other side, the Penbbs allows nib swap while the Parker nib sims to be almost impossible to extract.

 

[Olya]

They are undeniably the same pen, non-/transparent sections don't change that.

 

Barrels might not be interchangeable, though I'd like to know whether they are as well.

 

I have a Sheaffer Sagaris in two colours and I can't change the barrels, they only screw onto the section they came with, even though the two colour pens are the same model and look absolutely the same. Other people have encountered this same problem with the Sagaris.

So if the barrels are not interchangeable between the Allure and Vector XL, it means nothing.

 

I have the Allure and find it to be a great pen.

The Vector was (is?) also a great pen, but I never liked metal sections and it's too slim.

The Jotter is also great, better than the Vector, but also a bit too slim, though the new iteration is marginally larger in the grip section than the old one.

[AGF]

I was not trying to proof if they are or are not the same. That is a good philosophical question, nevertheless: what makes two things be the same or not be the same? In reality, if two things are exactly the same, they would be just one and only thing. But I was just talking about differences and compatibilities...

 

By the way: seems quite interesting that the new Parker 51 has the old Vector nib and costs up to 90€, while the Vector XL appears now with a quite better nib, and costs 21€.

 

 

[Olya]

26 minutes ago, AGF said:

I was not trying to proof if they are or are not the same. That is a good philosophical question, nevertheless: what makes two things be the same or not be the same? In reality, if two things are exactly the same, they would be just one and only thing. But I was just talking about differences and compatibilities...

 

By the way: seems quite interesting that the new Parker 51 has the old Vector nib and costs up to 90€, while the Vector XL appears now with a quite better nib, and costs 21€.

 

 

Indeed! 🙂

 

On the nibs: Kinda truly, daftly ironic, but to be fair both nibs are "recycled", original Vector's/Jotter's (and old IM's and Urban's!) in the new 51 and Waterman Allure's in Vector XL.... Cost saving repurposing everywhere...

[AGF]

45 minutes ago, Olya said:

Indeed! 🙂

 

On the nibs: Kinda truly, daftly ironic, but to be fair both nibs are "recycled", original Vector's/Jotter's (and old IM's and Urban's!) in the new 51 and Waterman Allure's in Vector XL.... Cost saving repurposing everywhere...

Do you think the old Vector nib is the same as the one in the XL? The new one seems to be bigger, and (in my case) writes better. Softer. It is nice to use.

[Olya]

5 hours ago, AGF said:

Do you think the old Vector nib is the same as the one in the XL? The new one seems to be bigger, and (in my case) writes better. Softer. It is nice to use.

No, not at all!

The older Vector nib is the same as in the (old and new) Jotter and old IM and Urban.

I don't know whether the new IM and Urban's nib are completely new or are shared with other models (with others from the Newell umbrella).

 

The new Vector XL nib is the same as Waterman Allure's.

[jchch1950]

The barrels and caps are interchangeable between the new Vector XL and the Allure.The nibs of the old and new Vectors are different.

[jchch1950]

I wan't to correct myself. The caps of the Vector XL an the Allure can be interchange without problem but not the barrels.😒

[AGF]

28 minutes ago, jchch1950 said:

I wan't to correct myself. The caps of the Vector XL an the Allure can be interchange without problem but not the barrels.😒

Pity. I like such interchanges.