Apple’s Marc Newson Designs a space-Age Fountain Pen

Now that he’s joined Apple, famed industrial designer Marc Newson looks like he’d be more prone to design an iPad stylus at this level than a pen. however there isn’t any rubber tip to be discovered on Marc Newson’s latest advent, the Montblanc M fountain pen; it appears to be like designed to put in writing a love letter to the flowing ink nibs that the pc age is leaving at the back of.

Fountain pens are to people who still write with their arms what Swiss-made mechanical watches are to individuals who nonetheless tell time with out looking at their telephones. they’re for patrons who care about precision, craftsmanship, artistry, and luxury. as a result, most excessive-end fountain pens have a throwback really feel, as in the event that they’d simply been plucked from Jay Gatsby’s breast pocket.

When Newson set out to design the Montblanc M, he wanted it to be the Apple Watch of fountain pens: as much a tribute to the prior as an evolutionary step ahead. “There had to be a certain personality, one thing concerning the pen to make it completely different, to attraction to a brand new target audience,” says Newson. “while respecting the DNA of the brand, i wished to inject a sense of playfulness which i believe is vital.”

a part of that sense of playfulness comes from the Montblanc M’s house age shape; it looks as if the form of fountain pen that an astronaut in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: an area Odyssey would possibly use. Created out of Montblanc’s signature valuable black resin, the M was once formed the usage of a diamond software, which gives it its swish, fluid strains.

along with aesthetics, the main innovation of the Montblanc M is that it introduces one thing somewhat bit just like the MagSafe of Fountain pens: a magnet that ensures when you snap the cap again over the nip, the clip might be completely in step with the Montblanc brand.

“It delivered a undeniable degree of mechanical complexity to the manufacturing of the pen,” says Marc Newson. “however the end result’s each intuitive and practical, giving it a definite playful character. there is one thing reasonably magical a couple of magnet. basically, it’s a drive that you just can not see. it is seductive, a kind of alchemy.”

The Montblanc M will probably be on hand beginning September 1, for an Apple Watch-level worth: $565. That may appear to be lots, nevertheless it’s a bargain for an excellent pen that will remaining a lifetime, supplied you do not by accident lose it first. there may be a more cost-effective rollerball or ballpoint version for $400.