"Bond,
James Bond..." Great line. But you know, it only seems to work on
screen. Introduce yourself in that manner in public and people just look
at you funny. Maybe it has something to do with not looking quite so good
in a dinner jacket as Sean Connery?
At least now, you can be sure that your pen will fit the bill, even if you dont quite measure up to Connory standards. The new Bond edition from S.T. Dupont is, just like a spy who is constantly going around introducing himself, immediately identifiable. It is also at the same time a great pen!
This edition has been looked forward to since it's announcement several months ago. The excitement surrounding the release fell just short of hype, and if the pens had been even a bit less impressive, they might have come across as a dissapointment. It's nice to be able to say that, with a couple of minor exceptions, the pens themselves live up to all the excitement.
The Bond edition is available in two versions. One is a brushed palladium model, the other is a "gunmetal" finish. Both versions are made with a fountain pen, capped ballpen, or ballpen. In addition, a lighter and cufflinks are available.
We'll begin with the gunmetal finish version. This one is probably going to be seen as the "premium" of the two, both in terms of price, as well as in "looks". It's a very cool looking pen in the dark finish, and you might wonder why this finish hasn't been used more often on pens, especially those with a "modern" look to them. There's a simple answer to that, as it happens.
Fingerprints. This finish collects fingerprints as avidly as most of us collect fountain pens. Just touching it guarantees at the leasta smudge, and more likely a perfect piece of incriminating evidence. This is the principle piece of criticism I have with the Bond edition. It's impossible to keep the gunmetal one looking clean!
That's it for the critical. In all other respects, the Bond is a great pen. It's weighty of course, being all metal, and built on the large Orpheo model, but it's a very well balanced weight. Posting the cap presents no problems, it snugs well down on the barrel end, keeping the balance of the pen reasonable. If you prefer to write unposted, the barrel is long enough to allow comfortable use without posting the cap.
The
section is not finished in the gunmetal, instead it's a bright metal finish.
With very high relief diamond engraving. This isn't a pen that's going
to be slipping around in your fingers! It looks more uncomfortable than
it is, the engraving is deep, but not too sharp, it does offer a comfortable
grip on the pen.
The nib is Dupont's standard large 18K nib. If you've used a Dupont Orpheo before, you know what to expect. Smooth. Pull out all your favorite metaphors for smooth nibs and insert one here. Pick a good one, because the S.T. Dupont nibs deserve no less, they really are exceptional nibs!
Just to add a touch of dash, the nib is engraved with the 007 logo. It seems that medium is the only nib size available from what I've been able to find out.
In addition to the gunmetal finish, the 007 is also made with a very nice brushed palladium finish. I'm pretty sure that this finish will take a back seat to the more dramatic gunmetal finish, but in the end, it seems to be a somewhat more practical finish in everyday use. No fingerprints, mainly!
The pen is, excepting the finish, identical to the gunmetal version. There are sections of both the cap and barrel finished with the high relief diamond pattern engraving, paired up with series of deep grooves engraved into the opposite side. In addition, the cap sports the 007 logo running along the side.
All this decor is designed to give the Bond pen an "exciting, edgy, dangerous" look. I don't know about all that, but it is different, no doubt about it! Personally, I like it, and don't find it "too much". Well, maybe the logo is a wee bit over the top, but if you didn't have the logo, you would have nothing more than an interestingly styled uniquely finished pen. This way you have the 007 Bond pen. Much better.
Of course, the styling of the pen isn't enough, not even the large logo running down the cap side is enough. Both together don't even make this a Bond pen. No, to make a Bond pen you need gadgets!
And
gadgets are included... Of course, the ballpen has the nifty time calculator,
which I suppose allows you to check the local time in such pleasure spots
around the globe as Auckland, Dubai, Moscow, and of course London.
Handy if you need to know what time it is across the globe, and it does make for a neat styling feature. This feature is repeated on the lighter's striking wheel.
Use care when trying to set the time on this, you don't want to set yourself on fire accidentally. (That would be more Austin Powers than James Bond of you) Buyers of the lighter have to settle for just the time calculator feature, gadget-wise, but the buyers of the fountain pen or capped ballpoint version get more...
Tucked away into the barrel (with the 007 logo showing through a port in the side of the barrel) is a nifty little bullet shaped laser pointer. Press the button on the side and you get a little red dot on whatever you point it at. Very handy for... Well, for putting little red dots on things, certainly. Bound to have dozens of other uses as well, no doubt. The laser pointer does leave us with the one other problem of the Bond pen. It takes up quite a lot of room in the barrel. Leaving you with no more than a very short ballpoint refill, or a single international cartridge to supply you with writing. It might also cause some comment at the security checkpoint in airports. But hey, the whole point of gadgets is that they're not practical. If they were practical, they'd be mere tools!
So, the 007 Bond pen. Does it get a four star highly recommended rating? Well, yes, definitely yes if you're a fan of the Bond films. Growing up with James Bond films as I did, I admit to being drawn to this pen. Many of us who saw the films in our formative years (before they became more pastiche than serious) just can't help but fall for a pen like this. The gadget aspect will be a big draw as well. Some guys (most guys?) just plain love gadgets. We'll spend hours programing high tech remote controls instead of stepping ten feet to change the channel by hand. Showing us a pen with a built in laser pointer is probably simply not fair on Dupont's part!
But these aspects aside, the very nice thing about a Dupont pen, any Dupont pen, is that they are great pens. Well made, high quality, and every single one I have ever tried a good, reliable, smooth writer right out of the box. That itself is a lot of recommendation for the 007 pen!
copyright 2004 William Riepl