2nd incoming! Visconti Watermark yellow gold.

[Formulansx]

This was the pen I was originally looking at when I placed my order with Bryant but made the fatal mistake of asking for availability on another grail pen of mine, the Montegrappa Extra Otto. Words of wisdom. Don't ask availability of grail pens while you're already buying another pen! I'm a weak, weak man.

I went with a 1.3mm palladium stub on the Watermark. I've wanted a palladium stub nib for about a year now. I intended to do this on a Homo Sapiens but the Watermark was speaking to me so I put in for that model. The medium palladium nib on my Visconti Millionaire has been a lot of fun. This pen is the yellow gold plated (vermeil) version. It's a limited edition and this is 3 of 38. Visconti makes a solid rose gold Watermark but their website has it listed in the HRH (her royal highness) line at 18k euros! That ain't gonna happen so this was a nice compromise. I also have been looking for a yellow gold pen to go with my day-date. Most gold plated pens seem to be rose gold these days.

The pen is a vac filler demonstrator. Surprisingly the first plunge only filled the pen half way. My only other vac filler is a Wall Street LE and that pen is not a demonstrator. Apparently this is common for vac fillers after looking into it. No big deal. The ink capacity is huge anyway.

The filigree looks to be EDM'd. I can't imagine why Visconti would NOT use EDM to make such a pen in this day and age. It's hard to tell for sure as I've never seen EDM sterling silver that's gold plated before but the flats are not completely smooth in the cut out sections. I know they didn't stamp it and roll the body for sure so EDM is all that's practically left for manufacturing. Visconti claims it takes 20 manual operations to make the filagree pattern. It's very detailed and basically perfect in form. The pen is gold plated without a clear coat but the vac filler knob is a lighter gold. Not sure if they used a different standard here because of wear but you can see the difference in the light.

So the nib.....this nib is great! It's a tad too much on the super wet side for me right now but it's got a great amount of line variation. It's like writing with a paint brush! I'll probably heat set the nib and feed and cut it back a little. The ink likes to pool up here and there as it is. Under magnification the tipping has very hard edges. It's a really crisp grind but doesn't feel scratchy at all. This could be due to the extreme wetness of the nib. I might just leave it alone now that I think about it. It seems there's some intent in this nib tuning. The nib is soft but, like my other palladium nib, if you press a little deep the flood gates open and you've just dumped ink like crazy. My soft gold nibs are much more linear. Not a problem but just different.

Also I should mention this pen comes in Visconti's awesome charcoal lacquered box with white eco leather trim. I love these boxes! They look horrifically expensive and set any pen up just right.

It's a really interesting pen. A little too top heavy though but It's made of a sterling silver tube and there's a vac filling system up there too. It writes great and looks awesome overall! Really a cool pen to have in a collection and very limited to boot.

[Formulansx]

Here's some pics outside!

[1William]

Beautiful pen. Congratulations.

[Bisquitlips]

Whoa! That is much nicer up close than I recall!

May need to research this one more. Congratulations!

[Formulansx]

Originally Posted by Bisquitlips

Whoa! That is much nicer up close than I recall!

May need to research this one more. Congratulations!

Get em while you can Sir! This is 3 of 38 in yellow gold I can see the palladium version being just as awesome though. Good winter pen. Reminds me of an icicle.