No Ordinary Capless

A couple of texts I have dedicated to the Pilot Capless released in spring of 1965: the first one on the pen itself, and a second one on its instruction manual written in Spanish. But there is more to this pen.

There is a demonstrator among those!

One of the holy grails of Capless pens is the model, or rather variation, I am showing today. It seems to be the only demonstrator version ever made of the Capless family of pens. Its purpose, in line with the traditional idea of demonstrator pens, was to show the nib-retraction mechanism and it was never for sale. I know of three units of this transparent pen: two of them in Japan; the third, in Europe, and this was associated to the instruction booklet written in Spanish. I know, though, this pen was purchased in Taiwan. Sure enough, there might be some other units.

The holy grail of Capless, with the possible exception of the short-lived Platinum Knock.

Demonstrator and regular pen, side to side. Note the absence of clip on the demonstrator.

This demonstrator pen has, let us note, the guiding mechanism made of steel. That was not the case on the regular versions—early models (spring 1965) had those made of plastic and later on, maybe by fall 1965, it was changed to steel. The demonstrator I am showing had its nib made of 14 K gold in January 1966, which seems to contradict my observation of these nibs made of steel. Carmen Rivera’s website on the history of Pilot Capless shows gold nibs in the later models (fall 1965 on) and steel on those earlier ones (spring to fall 1965). Both nib materials were likely to coexist during the later life of this model.

The golden nib of the demonstrator. It was manufactured in January 1966.

In any event, this Capless demonstrator is no ordinary Capless.

My thanks and appreciation to Mr. Niikura and to Mr. Syrigonakis.

Pilot Petit-1, 3rd generation – Diamine Teal

Bruno Taut
August 12th, 2012
etiquetas: Pilot, Capless