Davidoff After 10 Years

In 2015, a “techincal partnership” between luxury brand Davidoff and Sailor gave rise to the Very Zino line of pens which were, in actual terms, made by the Japanese company.

The two resulting models, the unnamed regular and the Mini, were generated around the big and the medium sizes of Sailor nibs, following the company's naming. In fact, the pens are little else than variations on the Profit and ProGear units included in its catalog, but priced at a much higher point.

	. 2015 .		. 2025 .
	. Sailor .	. Davidoff .	. Sailor .	. Davidoff .
Medium / Mini .	. 10000 (14 K) . 15000 (21 K)	. 28000 (18 K) .	. 18000 (14 K) (*) . 28000 (21 K)	. 33000 (18 K) (**) .
Big	20000 (21 K)	30000 (18 K)	32000 (21 K)	35000 (18 K) (**)

Prices of Davidoff and equivalent Sailor pens in 2015 and 2025 in JPY before taxes. For Sailor models the cheaper possible price among the different variants was chosen.
(*) In 2025, the transparent version of the Sailor Profit Light/Standard has a price of JPY 17000.
(**) The 2025 prices of the Davidoff pens are those of the later catalog. Discounts up to 50% can be found in Tokyo.

For some reason, the Davidoff pens did not do well, and by 2018 the brand was nowhere to be seen in the pen scene in Japan. Well, not exactly true—leftover Davidoff pens can be seen heavily discounted at some retailers.

On the picture, a Davidoff Very Zino Resin in black with a silver trim and a rhodiated nib.

Davidoff Very Zino Resin.

This pen, as well as its smaller sibling the Very Zino Resin Mini, came with two possible trims –gold and silver, with matching nibs—, and in two different colors—black and red (burgundy). The nib points, on both models, were EF, F, M, and B.

The Very Zino on its catalog.

Davidoff's nibs are geometrically identical –therefore, interchangeable— to those in the Sailor pens. The only difference, besides the obvious detail of the engraving, lies on the purity of the gold—21 K and 14 K for Sailor, 18 K for Davidoff, although in some distant past, Sailor also used 18 K gold for their big nibs.

From top to bottom, Sailor Black Luster, Davidoff Very Zino Resin, and Sailor ProGear.

The Very Zino pens use standard cartridges and converters, and for that purpose the Sailor feeds and sections had to be modified to accommodate a different cartridge nipple.

Sailor on the left, Davidoff on the right. In between, their corresponding feeds.

Davidoff's pens share the fundamental dimensions with the Sailor counterparts. The differences are limited to the finials, and caps, sections and barrels are interchangeable among them. The only limitation is associated to the extra length of the standard converter in the Davidoff—it does not fit in the Sailor barrels.

These are the dimensions of the Davidoff Very Zino Resin (regular) pen together with those of the Sailor Profit (in the Black Luster version) and of the ProGear:

	Davidoff .Very Zino.	Sailor .Black Luster.	Sailor . ProGear .
Length closed (mm)	133	141	128
Length open (mm)	120	123	116
Length posted (mm)	149	154	148
Diameter (mm)	16.7	16.0	15.9
Weight (dry, g)	38.6	28.4	24.5
Ink deposit (ml)	. 0.7/1.45/0.8 (*) .	1.2/0.7 (**)	. 1.2/0.7 (**) .

Dimensions of the standard size Davidoff Very Zino together with those of the 21 Series of the Sailor (Profit) Black Luster and Pro Gear.
(*) Volumes of the short standard cartridge, long standard cartrige, and the Davidoff standard converter.
(**) Volumes of the Sailor cartridge and Sailor converter.

The Davidoff pen in standard size shares the section with the Profit Black Luster (and other FL models, of course). In the case of the Mini, there is no equivalent in the Sailor catalog. This detail adds some value to the Davidoffs as they are either unique or higher in the their position compared to Sailor models.

But, as previously mentioned, three years after their release in Japan, Davidoff was gone. I dare to say that the pricing was wrong and the goal of positioning those pens as a more luxurious product with respect to the equivalent Sailor models did not really work. After all, Davidoff might very well be a luxury brand, but it is a nobody in the world of fountain pens.

JD Fake Custom Urushi – Taccia Kuro

Bruno Taut
February 25th, 2025
etiquetas: Sailor, Davidoff, mercado

A Pen Is A Pen

A pen must write well in any country. That should be a given, but not all pens perform correctly.

When a Japanese pen is at fault, the different writing scripts –Kanji and kana in Japan, alphabet in the West— have been used by some to explain why it did not work properly, and even to justify how suitable a pen is for certain market.

These are some examples:

Some years ago, it became well known that the size #10 Falcon nib by Pilot (present on the models Custom 742 and Custom Heritage 912) did not always behave properly (::1::, ::2::). Many units tended to railroad under almost any pressure. But to this obvious fault some in the West invoked the special way of writing (Japanese, that is) to explain and justify that failure.

Pilot Custom 742 with a Falcon nib.

More recently, Davidoff argued –at least in Japan-- that their nibs were perfectly suited for Japan because their nibs were Sailor's... Like if Pelikan and Montblanc pens were so bad at that and had a hard time in the Japanese market.

Davidoff pens.

The case of Naginata Togi nibs has already been discussed on these pages. In the Japanese market, Sailor brags about how suitable those nibs are to write Japanse (::3::, ::4::), but that does not prevent Sailor from selling them in the West...

Sailor Naginata Togi nibs.

All those examples are nothing but bland excuses and cheap marketing. A pen is a pen and must write well in any script. And Pilot claimed this long time ago:

A Namiki ad from 1927 in the UK explained that the Japanese writing was the perfect benchmark to ensure the correct performance of their pens under any circumstance... such as writing in alphabet!

The Bookseller & the Stationery Trades Journal, July 1927. Page 27. As seen at the Pen Station, Tokyo, in April of 2013. Japanese as the perfect test for any pen!

Japanese are not from another planet. Neither are Westerners when seen from Japan.

Sailor Profit Naginata Togi – Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku

Bruno Taut
Nakano, July - August 2019
etiquetas: mercado, Japón, japonés, Pilot, Sailor, Davidoff, plumín

Davidoff

The essence of this Chronicle is again one sentence: Davidoff pens use Sailor nibs.

The basic Davidoff models: the Very Zino Resin (bottom) and the Very Zino Resin Mini (top). All Davidoff's pens are cartridge-converters.

Davidoff does not hide it and even uses that statement as an argument to enter the Japanese market: “Davidoff pens are perfectly adapted to write Japanese characters”, Davidoff sales people claim.

Davidoff's logo on the top of the cap.

The two nib options in Davidoff's pens. In Sailor terms, they are medium (top) and big (bottom). In the case of Davidoff's pens, all nibs are made of 18 K gold. Only three point options: F, M, and B.

But the problem is twofold. First, Davidoff pens are a lot more expensive than their Sailor equivalents.

Nib size		--Sailor--		-Davidoff-
Medium		JPY 10000 (14 K)		JPY 28000 (18 K)
		JPY 15000 (21 K)
Big		JPY 20000 (21 K)		JPY 30000 (18 K)

This table summarizes the cheaper options for Sailor and Davidoff's pens. Note that Davidoff's nibs are made of 18 K gold--an option that does not exist in the Sailor catalog. Prices in Japan (in Japanese Yen) before taxes.

Second—Japanese pen aficionados love German pens with their German nibs. Maybe they are also good to write in Japanese.

Sailor Young Profit, music nib – Parker Quink Blue

Bruno Taut
Chuo, April 1st, 2015
etiquetas: Sailor, Davidoff, mercado