Montblanc thoughts

[Burlington]

Hi all, my first post to this sub forum, but I often read the excellent content here and am awestruck by some of the stunning photos.

I tested out a few Montblanc pens yesterday at a boutique store, I am not fully sure what I was expecting, but everything I tried left me just a little underwhelmed.

I'm keen to add a second pen, and have never tried MB before so wanted to give them a go.

I tried a couple of Meisterstück models, and a LE Petit Prince. They wrote really nicely (rollerball) but I was expecting more weight, and was surprised the screw threads for the cap even seemed to be plastic/ resin. It was a very nice feature that the refill screwed in on at least one of the pens I tried (not sure if this is common on their whole range?)

When I bought my Caran D'ache Léman a couple of years ago, the salesman, suggestively, but effectively steered me away from MB, saying in the past they used to be first class, but now, not so much.

Given how popular they are as a pen maker, I just wanted to share my observations and see what your thoughts are - am I missing something, are there any other MB models I should try? Am I wrong to conflate weight of the pen with perceived instrument quality?

I guess I was just expecting more of a wow factor from a 500+EUR pen.

I would be fascinated to hear your collective thoughts on which other brands are worth trying, Montegrappa and S.T. Dupont are two others which have I have tried in the past that I liked.