Since the demise of Omas, another Italian brand took over the 'hip and trendy' status Omas had at the time when they went into administration. People raved about Omas, and now they rave about Aurora. Let's just hope they don't go down the same road...
The Aurora pen company has been around since 1919, an impressive feat on itself. The Optima, a smaller pen with a distinctive flattop design, was introduced in 1930, and has been one of the flagship pens for the brand ever since, along with the Ottantotto (similar design, but with rounded finials).
Part of the charm and attire of their pens comes from the fact that they make every part in-house, down to even the gold nibs! Only a couple brands still do that today, so for that alone they are quite unique!
What's also unique are the custom materials they use for most of their pens: Auroloide, a more modern kind of celluloid that is supposed to be more stable (If you saw
Inglorious Bastards, those film reels burning vigorously: ... Celluloid!).
The pen I have in front of me today is the Aurora Optima Monviso 360, a limited edition (almost sold out at the moment, so yes I'm terribly late with this review!) of 360 pens, dedicated to the Monviso mountain in the Italian Alps. The standard version of this pen comes in a variety of Auroloide colors (all equally beautiful), but for this limited edition they went with a subtle black and white flecked auroloide.
In the recent years I've changed my opinion about colorful pens quite drastically, though when I have the choice I'll still go for more subtle materials. In this case, the strong contrast between deep black and pearl white flecks offers a stylish, business-like appearance, yet it's much more appealing than 'just another black pen'. Together with the wide, greek-key engraved, center band, and the subtly curved clip, the Monviso makes for a sleek pen that doesn't scream for attention, yet with just enough visual interest to keep it from being boring.
 |
| Limited to only 360 pieces worldwide, the few that still remain probably won't last long! |
Worth noting is the exceptionally precision with which each piece is made and assembled. I can usually find at least one flaw on a new pen, but in this case that has yet to be the case. It's dangerous to call something perfect, but this definitely comes close.
The Optima is a fairly small pen at 12.7cm (roughly 5 In) closed, and 12.3cm uncapped. For a short and stubby pen, it has quite a decent width, which makes up for the shorter length. It's a really comfortable pen to use because of the long and tapered section, and the lack of any sharp edges or threads to distract from the writing experience.
 |
| L to R: Pelikan M400, Pelikan M805, Aurora Monviso, Lamy 2000, Lamy Safari. |
A small, but clever detail that perfectly shows Aurora's expertise, is the filling system: its a normal piston-filler on first sight, with a large, clear ink window behind the section. But when you start running low on ink, the ink stops flowing. At that point you have to unscrew the piston, which acts as a step up to allow the remaining bit of ink to flow. It may sound useless, but when you look at the pen and notice the loose piston knob, you'll know it's time for a refill. Clever!
The nib, as I said, is also completely homemade, and features some scrollwork along with the gold content imprinted in the middle. I would've preferred if they placed the Aurora logo in the middle of the scrollwork, and put the '14k' somewhere else at the bottom, but that's just my two cents.
Aurora is known for their 'feedbacky' nibs, comparable to how most Japanese nibs write. It may take some getting used to, but it provides with a consistent, skip-free writing experience. The flow is balanced slightly on the wet side, and it keeps up flawlessly, in part because of the ebonite feed.
 |
| Not everyday you see a red ebonite feed, especially on modern pens! |
Regarding nib sizes, Aurora seems to lean more towards Asian style pens, and they tend to run quite a bit finer than most European counterparts. On this specific pen, the 18k broad nib wrote more like a regular medium. That's good news for those that like EF and F nibs, but somewhat dissapointing if you want a wide, juicy writer.
After spending some time with this pen, I definitely understand why these pens have become so popular in the recent years. The craftmanship is immaculate, the design is stylish, and the performance is on par with what you'd expect from a 600 dollar pen. It's a lot of money for a pen (something I keep telling myself everytime), but I think it's safe to say that you get a quality luxury product in return. On top of that, Aurora apparently lowered the prices on the standard collection recently, so the regular Optima colors can be had for around 450 USD (Here in Europe 550 EUR, which includes VAT).
Note: La Couronne Du Comte is a sponsor of this blog, I received a discount on this purchase, so I could write this review. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared here are completely my own! This review does not contain any affilate links.
No comments:
Post a Comment