Has Waterman stopped making bottled ink‽

[Mercian]

I wanted to remind myself of the names that Waterman uses for its different colours of ink, so I have just looked at the Waterman website.

https://www.waterman.com/inks/

 

To my horror and disgust, I found the following:

There is NO mention of ANY ink in bottles, ONLY ink in cartridges!
Even worse, ALL the colours appear to have been discontinued, except for:

• 'Intense Black';
• 'Serenity Blue' (whose name still appears as 'Florida Blue' when one clicks on the swatch that indicates its colour);
• 'Mysterious Blue' (whose name appears as 'Blue and Black' when one clicks on the swatch).

 

Furthermore, 'Mysterious Blue' is NOT listed as being available in the 'extensive' range of inks that are available in Waterman's short cartridges!

 

 

We are currently living in the 'golden age' of inks.
More companies that make fountain pen ink are appearing, existing ink makers are producing ink in more colours.

 

But, if the company's website is anything to go by, it seems that the genius Executive class at Newell-Rubbermaid has decided to wave a little white flag, and abandon making nearly all of Waterman's offerings - just as it has with the varieties of Parker 'Quink' other than 'Black', 'Washable Blue', and 'Blue and Black'.

🤯

 

So, if you are especially fond of any of the bottled inks that Waterman has made up until now, I advise you to buy one soon!

 

Unless, of course, the fact that their bottled inks AND most colours of ink have recently been deleted from the Waterman website merely indicates the unique level of competence of the Marketing and/or multimedia employees who have been hired by Newell-Rubbermaid.

 

Do any of you know which of the two possible interpretations is the correct one?

 

Slàinte,
M.

 

 

[ZeroDukE]

[inkstainedruth]

And here I was totally kicking myself when I didn't get a backup bottle of Audacious Brown when I had a chance.... 

At least they (so far, anyway) seem to have not gotten rid of Waterman Mysterious Blue, which is my go-to ink for the Parker Red Shadow Wave Vacumatic.... 

I really do NOT know what Newell-Rubbermaid is thinking.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Estycollector]

Well, I bought another bottle of Serenity Blue.

[Mercian]

4 hours ago, ZeroDukE said:

 

I don't get that ↑ result at all when I look from the UK  

 

I also posted this thread on the 'Inky Thoughts' board, and in that thread some other members have reported getting the same (lack of) results that I do.

The consensus seems to be that the website is in total disarray/chaos.
Today I have used the 'contact' form on it to ask Waterman to tell me exactly which inks they are still making, and in exactly which formats.

 

At this point, I am 🤞that they are just really bad at keeping their website up-to-date and consistent (one might instead say 'fit for purpose') and that they are still producing all eight colours of ink, and in bottles!

So, when (if?) Waterman get back to me, I will post here to relate what they have told me.

[inkstainedruth]

Looking forward to your update.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Pablo]

On 5/11/2025 at 6:02 PM, ZeroDukE said:

 

Sorry to rain on your parade, but things get nasty just *after* the last screen you've captured. In particular, when you press the "Discover" button at the "Ink Bottles" section you get a pretty "Not Found" answer, as shown in the following captures.

Also, if you press the "Discover" button at the topmost level, you get just ballpen refills and ink cartridges. Not a single reference to ink bottles.

All of this from Spain, and both in the UK and the French versions of Waterman website.

 

Either Newell is thinking on *again* revamping the boxes and bottles of their inks (and doubling the price in the process), or they have decided to kill the ink production line. Either way, tomorrow I'll hoard a couple bottles of Mysterious Blue. Just in case...

 

Regards.

 

Pablo

[TSherbs]

On 5/11/2025 at 4:42 PM, inkstainedruth said:

Looking forward to your update.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

As do I. 

[Mercian]

  

Well, I have now had a reply from Waterman's CS people (who are now in Poland, rather than France), and it is very good news for those of us who want to buy inks in bottles.

 

The reply that I received says:

 

Quote

Thank you for contacting us and for your interest and feedback about Waterman ink and our website.
 
It seems that there is an issue on the website that is preventing the ink in bottle from showing up, but they are still available for purchase, as before.
 
To confirm, the inks are available in the following formats:
Ink Cartridges short (international size)
Black
Serenity Blue
Mysterious Blue

Ink Cartridges long
Black
Serenity Blue

Ink Bottles
Intense Black
Serenity Blue
Mysterious Blue
Blue Obsession
Audacious Red
Inspired Blue
Harmonious Green
Tender Purple
Absolute Brown

I will report your feedback about the website to a relevant department so that we can fix it.

 

I note that the list includes 'Absolute Brown', which was the first ink to vanish from the website, and which I had therefore thought had been discontinued.

 

Then again, I also note that the list of which inks are available in the two sizes of Waterman cartridge is the opposite of what is shown on the website. I hope that the CS agent has merely accidentally transposed those.

 

Anyway, at least it seems that they are going to have someone look at fixing their website!

 

Slàinte,
M.

[Mercian]

Update to my previous post:

 

I have only just noticed that the CS rep included an ink called 'Blue Obsession' in the list of bottled ink products.

I cannot find any retailer that is currently selling that ink - which seems to have been a re-labelled version of 'Inspired Blue' that, several years ago, was briefly produced in conjunction with a few pens in a colour called 'Blue Obsession' (cf Lamy 'Pacific Blue').

Which rather undermines my confidence in the accuracy of the rest of the answers.

 

It would seem that nobody at the company can give a definitive answer to the question of what inks Waterman currently make!
Or that the CS rep only looked at the front page of the (shonky) Waterman website, rather than doing any actual investigation

[ZeroDukE]

On 5/15/2025 at 10:57 AM, Mercian said:

  

Well, I have now had a reply from Waterman's CS people (who are now in Poland, rather than France), and it is very good news for those of us who want to buy inks in bottles.

 

The reply that I received says:

 

 

I note that the list includes 'Absolute Brown', which was the first ink to vanish from the website, and which I had therefore thought had been discontinued.

 

Then again, I also note that the list of which inks are available in the two sizes of Waterman cartridge is the opposite of what is shown on the website. I hope that the CS agent has merely accidentally transposed those.

 

Anyway, at least it seems that they are going to have someone look at fixing their website!

 

Slàinte,
M.

 

 

Thanks for sharing! That's great! I love Waterman bottled inks. And I won't need an umbrella either.

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 5/11/2025 at 10:23 PM, inkstainedruth said:

 

Reply deleted....snarkdom has its limits....

Is there room in Poland for two ink companies?

[Mercian]

1 hour ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Reply deleted....snarkdom has its limits....

Is there room in Poland for two ink companies?

 

Oh, I think that the facilities that actually produce NR's Waterman/Parker pens/inks are still in France.

It's just that they've now relocated the 'Customer Service' function to Poland.
I presume because it's cheaper to employ (& fire) employees in Poland than it is in France

That said, from a Corporation's point-of-view, having the CS 'team' in Poland does at least give them 'plausible deniability' when it comes to having no clue about what's occurring in the actual production facilities in France....

 

(Since you asked, yes; I am a Cynical Old Misanthrope!)

[Bo Bo Olson]

2 hours ago, Mercian said:

I am a Cynical Old Misanthrope!

Grumpy old men of the world; unite.

[justsomerandombloke]

20 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Reply deleted....snarkdom has its limits....

Is there room in Poland for two ink companies?

There isn't a single country that has enough ink companies

[Estycollector]

On 5/11/2025 at 3:23 PM, inkstainedruth said:

And here I was totally kicking myself when I didn't get a backup bottle of Audacious Brown when I had a chance.... 

At least they (so far, anyway) seem to have not gotten rid of Waterman Mysterious Blue, which is my go-to ink for the Parker Red Shadow Wave Vacumatic.... 

I really do NOT know what Newell-Rubbermaid is thinking.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Just noticed an Inspired Blue by Waterman. Nothing like being mysterious, yet serene and inspired. 

[thx1138]

I always thought it was "Insipid blue".

Name aside, the ink is a rather nice turquoise blue.

[TSherbs]

On 5/15/2025 at 11:16 AM, Mercian said:

Update to my previous post:

 

I have only just noticed that the CS rep included an ink called 'Blue Obsession' in the list of bottled ink products.

I cannot find any retailer that is currently selling that ink - which seems to have been a re-labelled version of 'Inspired Blue' that, several years ago, was briefly produced in conjunction with a few pens in a colour called 'Blue Obsession' (cf Lamy 'Pacific Blue').

Which rather undermines my confidence in the accuracy of the rest of the answers.

 

It would seem that nobody at the company can give a definitive answer to the question of what inks Waterman currently make!
Or that the CS rep only looked at the front page of the (shonky) Waterman website, rather than doing any actual investigation

 

I appreciate this effort.

 

With discrepancies in the website and your inability to find a color matching one in their list, I have basically zero confidence in the accuracy of this report. 

 

My conclusion: some inks are still produced somewhere in some bottles and some sizes of cartridges 🤔

[Estycollector]

3 hours ago, thx1138 said:

I always thought it was "Insipid blue".

Name aside, the ink is a rather nice turquoise blue.

Just checked, Waterman Inspired Blue Ink - 50 ml Bottle | JetPens

[inkstainedruth]

On 5/17/2025 at 12:16 PM, Estycollector said:

Just noticed an Inspired Blue by Waterman. Nothing like being mysterious, yet serene and inspired. 

I picked up a bottle of that last fall at OPS at the Indy-Pen-Dance table, since they were out of Mysterious Blue.  It's a bright turquoise blue and I'm not overly enamored of it.  Not really what I'd call "serene".  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth