Cocoon

Some media, FP Geeks among them, have recently announced the immediate release of a new pen model by Pilot—the Metropolitan. The name in Japan is Cocoon and has recently been released in the domestic market. It is actually a whole line of pens composed by a mechanical pencil, a ball-point pen and a fountain pen. All of them are made of "coated brass" and come in five different colors: silver, blue, bordeaux, titan, and metallic grey.

Regarding the fountain pen –our object of obsession--, its price is JPY 3150 (5% tax included, MSRP). It is a cartridge-converter pen with a stainless steel nib in F or M. An interesting detail is that this same nib is used in the Pilot Prera, and both pens cost exactly the same. The Prera demonstrator, let us remember, cost JPY 3675 because it includes the CON-50 converter whose price is JPY 525. Therefore, both pens, Prera and Cocoon, are lined up in the same market segment, apparently competing against each other.

Prera on the left, Cocoon on the right. The engravings are different, but the nibs and feeds are the same.

The pen in the presentation box.

Other products in the Japanese market in this price range are the Platinum Balance nibs in F and M) and the Sailor Lecoule (in MF only). It seems this might be a quite active area of the market and offering more models might increase Pilot’s share.

Platinum pocket pen, stainless steel with black stripes – Platinum black

Bruno Taut
September 22th, 2012
labels: Japón, mercado, Pilot, Sailor, Platinum