100th Anniversary editions

[Surlyprof]

On 3/13/2025 at 8:02 AM, NoType said:

@a student Thank you very much for these links to Kintsugi; I had no conception that this age-old method could be applied to non-porcelain material!  Fascinating, indeed.

 

Although a recovering perfectionist, I am a little familiar with wabi-sabi philosophy, and have been the fortunate client of a Kintsugi artist for a 2010 Masters for Meisterstück Porcelain Black and White Porcelain White LeGrand Special Edition Fountain Pen (ident 106071), the cap needing repair after a fall from the writing desk:

analysis by Kintsugi artist before repair

 

 

 

after Kintsugi repair using ancient techniques and white gold powder

 

The finished piece is now a treasured item and dearer to me than before.

 

 

This is brilliant!  It almost makes me want to break my 146 to have this done (although I will not).  Such a fantastic result.  Beautiful.

 

If you ever wanted to know more about wabi sabi, I’ve read several and found Andrew Juniper’s book to be one of the better ones I’ve found on the subject.

[Phonz]

Wabi sabi! Yes!

[Opooh]

On 7/11/2025 at 3:01 PM, Lam1 said:

 

 

i think they just underestimated how many people wanted the 149 and how many of those would choose OBBB.

The problem with forums like this is the fact that you mainly encounter like-minded people here, that's how you get tunnel vision. Many Montblanc pens are purchased as gifts and part of them end up in a cupboard and then later come onto the market as NOS. An M nib is the best solution for these pens as well as for the occasional user. Only the real dilettantes go for more exotic nib formats.

Nib group
Estimate share of sales
EF
~10–20 %
F
~30–35 %
M
~30–35 %
B
~10–15 %
BB/DB
~3–5 %
BBB / OBB
< 1 %
Oblique
< 5 %, especially B/BB levels

 

 

[Scribs]

5 hours ago, Opooh said:

 Only the real dilettantes go for more exotic nib formats.

 

 

 

 

I've never heard such a poorly formulated conclusion: If I know I like EF nibs, then I would be pretty stupid to buy myself mediums. You suggest that all of us with our specific tastes and preferences are dilettantes?!

[a student]

7 hours ago, Opooh said:

The problem with forums like this is the fact that you mainly encounter like-minded people here, that's how you get tunnel vision. Many Montblanc pens are purchased as gifts and part of them end up in a cupboard and then later come onto the market as NOS. An M nib is the best solution for these pens as well as for the occasional user. Only the real dilettantes go for more exotic nib formats.

Nib group
Estimate share of sales
EF
~10–20 %
F
~30–35 %
M
~30–35 %
B
~10–15 %
BB/DB
~3–5 %
BBB / OBB
< 1 %
Oblique
< 5 %, especially B/BB levels

 

 

 

Thank you for this perspective

[Opooh]

4 hours ago, Scribs said:

 

I've never heard such a poorly formulated conclusion: If I know I like EF nibs, then I would be pretty stupid to buy myself mediums. You suggest that all of us with our specific tastes and preferences are dilettantes?!

Sorry, I meant aficionados . All I wanted to say: Montblanc is part of the Richemont group specialised in making money by selling luxury goods. So the decision to deliver all limited editions with an M nib has only commercial reasons. The “ tailor made “ businessmodel of Ferrari is an example for every firm in the luxury business. They make more profit, give the client an exclusivity feeling and give an incentive to start a collection. 

Ps there is nothing wrong with EF nibs.

[Scribs]

2 hours ago, Opooh said:

Sorry, I meant aficionados . All I wanted to say: Montblanc is part of the Richemont group specialised in making money by selling luxury goods. So the decision to deliver all limited editions with an M nib has only commercial reasons. The “ tailor made “ businessmodel of Ferrari is an example for every firm in the luxury business. They make more profit, give the client an exclusivity feeling and give an incentive to start a collection. 

Ps there is nothing wrong with EF nibs.

 

I am relieved to hear we're aficianados after all. Thanks for the clarification! 🙂

 

It's not just Montblanc that offers M as the default nib. Back in the days where many department stores had fountain pens stocked, the majority were invariably M. At most, if you were really lucky, there might be an F or a B. Some pens or brands didn't even seem to offer different sizes, or if they did there would still be a long wait until replacements had been made.

 

Atleast Montblanc offers a nib exchange, even free of charge within the first few weeks of the pen being new.

[Uncial]

I suspect it has more to do with boutiques not wanting stock sitting idle. For a long time you could be almost guaranteed an F or B and an EF in a large boutique, but they decided to implement the M as the standard ( even on their website, which seems crazy - but I see the F is back as an option). I believe it was an error on their part. I understand why they did it, but in Europe a three week turnaround suddenly jumped to three and a half months (minimum) when the 100 yr pens released. Those were never going to be chased by the 'business world gifts' folk, so the policy just ended up annoying Montblanc's other customers. 

 

The website restriction is especially annoying. I know the purpose is to drive custom through the boutiques , but buying a pen from the website only to hand it over to a boutique on arrival for them to send it back to MB HQ for a nib exchange is frankly bonkers....and infuriating.....and the wait times are still excrutiatingly long, which might indicate tgat they have to do a lot of them.

[Opooh]

50 minutes ago, Uncial said:

 

 

The website restriction is especially annoying. I know the purpose is to drive custom through the boutiques , but buying a pen from the website only to hand it over to a boutique on arrival for them to send it back to MB HQ for a nib exchange is frankly bonkers....and infuriating.....and the wait times are still excrutiatingly long, which might indicate tgat they have to do a lot of them.

That is indeed a mistery, why they restrict the webstore on nib choice. Only possible Reading is to avoid that someone who has chosen a nibsize still wants to change it after delivery.

[Cyrille81]

Just because the online website is just a sort of boutique with the same limitations and limited stocks of products.

It is the same stupidity for boutiques that can't order directly the nib the customer wants. They need to order a M or F if available depending the models and send the pen back for a free nib exchange! So wasting money and absolutely not green and ecologic...

[dbs]

7 hours ago, Cyrille81 said:

They need to order a M or F if available depending the models and send the pen back for a free nib exchange! So wasting money and absolutely not green and ecologic...

 

Ever heard of the story told here that MJR refused to offer "free" nib exchange after the pen was inked? 

 

[Opooh]

10 hours ago, Cyrille81 said:

Just because the online website is just a sort of boutique with the same limitations and limited stocks of products.

It is the same stupidity for boutiques that can't order directly the nib the customer wants. They need to order a M or F if available depending the models and send the pen back for a free nib exchange! So wasting money and absolutely not green and ecologic...

That might be the answer, but not their webstore but other webstores like Appelboom, Akkerman and some years ago La Couronne du Comte. They had most sizes in stock and if you could wait they have huge discounts. Regular brick and mortar shops couldn’t compete with them. As long as they have dutch clients that is no problem for MB, if they have clients all over the world, other story. Once the pen goes out of EU, custom service. This can delay a delivery for weeks. When the client wants another nib, same procedure backwards, again weeks. I think the Exchange period could be exceeded, but since these online stores were big clients probably MB had to change nibs that weren’t koosjer anymore. 
To give you an example, before COVID, LCDC could get every thinkable model of Montblanc pens, even without taking in their leather stuff, perfumes etcetera. They managed to get the Unicef and 90th anniversary skeletons , the coral red and black 12 replica’s. Sold with a discount of substantialy more than 20%.

 

[jmccarty3]

I miss LCDC. Bought many special Montblancs from them.

[Opooh]

4 hours ago, jmccarty3 said:

I miss LCDC. Bought many special Montblancs from them.

Not to mention the monthly saturdaymorning visits to the Tilburg shop, less than 100 km from home.

[Cyrille81]

14 hours ago, dbs said:

 

Ever heard of the story told here that MJR refused to offer "free" nib exchange after the pen was inked? 

 

Don't know the policy of MJR as I'm living in Europe, my pens are always directly sent to Hamburg for nib exchange. But yes it seems MJR is not always fine with the policy. But when I'm sending pen for nib exchange, I always clean it up before sending it to MB and I never had any issue or refusal. I think the most important is to respect the date and timing to send them (6 weeks for standard and special pens and 1 year for the limited edition).

[NoType]

1 hour ago, digitorum- Leonardo_W said:

@NoType Still waiting for your 149 this day or you got it back repaired ? 

@digitorum- Leonardo_W Yes, still waiting.  Nine months and counting.  I’m winning in the waiting stakes, @Uncial, though admittedly the pen is at HQ for far more than a M —> O3B nib exchange.

[NoType]

11 hours ago, digitorum- Leonardo_W said:

 

Oh i see, lets hope that it will be done within a calendar full year at least👌🏻and that you get it soon !

Yes, thank you!  From your lips to the fountain pen deities’ ears!

[fpupulin]

Welcome back, @NoType, even without your new 100th anniversary pen!

 

What are nine months, after all, compared to a hundred years of Meisterstück? He he he...

[senceryan]