This Citizen Eco-Drive tank watch was my first “expensive” watch purchase— as in, not purchased at the fashion jewelry counter of a department store. Or expensive to me at the time. I knew it was overpriced by virtue of buying it at a resort boutique while I was on vacation, but I love classic tank style watches and they weren’t often seen eight years ago when I bought this.
It went to the back of my jewelry box when I started wearing my Apple Watch every day. Plus, it takes an odd width strap and the local jewelery store didn’t have any in the right size when the original cheap brown croc leather one wore out.
I was just sorting through my watch box today, after 3 years of being more “into” watches*, and realized I had a spare strap in the right size, that didn’t quite match the watch I bought it for, so I put it on this one.
Still really like it, and feel like I’ve just gotten a “new watch” for my collection.
The EcoDrive movement means you don’t need batteries for it. Leave it where it gets some light occasionally and it’s always good to go. Accuracy of a quartz without the battery hassle. This has been in the back of my closed watch box for 2 years so was run down. Put it on the window sill this morning and it’s running fine now.
Citizen is an underrated Japanese watch maker. One of my favorite “more expensive” watches is a Citizen mechanical with a gorgeous dial and fine movement.
*By “watch aficionado” standards, I barely stuck my toe into the watch hobby, because it can be an EXPENSIVE hobby. But the watch group I hang out with online is very inclusive of folks who buy at all different price points. Lots of folks in the group have Timex and Swatch watches—and others have those alongside JLCs and Paneri. And now I at least know where to buy replacement straps and spring bars and such online. I’ve about tapped out of the hobby as far as new purchases, but really value the friends I’ve made.
First, let’s state the obvious: this is a cheap Chinese? knock off of the Kaweco AL-Sport. Some people do not ever use blatant knock offs, out of respect for the design and development costs the initial brand invested and their ongoing investment in customer service, etc. So if that is you, you can stop reading now. (I generally do not use knock-offs instead of the main brand item, for those very reasons – but I will sometimes use them alongside.)
This pen came with a mini converter, and wrote well out of the box. It came in a thin metal box secured by foam padding. It takes standard international short cartridges if you don’t like the converter.
For me, the problem with pocket pens is by definition they don’t usually live in my portable pen case, but rather my pocket or loose in my purse, and so I am prone to misplacing them, or occasionally sending them through the wash.
I would rather risk that with a $20 Hongdian pen from Amazon than a $80-92 Kaweco AL Sport or $125 Schon Design Pocket 6. My favorite Pocket 6 is “house lost” at the moment, in fact.
And personally, I have a real hard time with smooth metal sections, which this pen and the AL-Sport both have. Metal section pens are fine for me for jotting quick notes, which is the purpose of a pocket pen, but I can’t use one for a long writing session. Another reason for me not to spend as much money on a pocket pen with a metal section.
Enough about why this pen serves a function for me even though I also own multiple genuine Kaweco AL-Sports.
The one thing that I really like about this pen more than the Kaweco is its clip. It is an integrated part of the cap, and it is a spring clip—much better on both counts than the Kaweco clips, which need to be bought as an added accessory, and which will easily slide off your pen. To me a clip makes a pocket pen much more usable – I almost always reach for those with clips over those that do not have one. So I think this is actually a better pen for its function than its pricier Kaweco inspiration.
OK, another thing I really like about this pen is just particular to me – its finial has an adorable design of two cats, black and white, curled together in a yin yang shape. I will post a picture of my two cats, Coconut and MoonPie, and you can see why I had to have this pen. It sits on my bedside table, ready in case I have any middle of the night thoughts to jot down. And ready to be shoved in my pocket as I get dressed.
Ratings:
Function: * * * * *
Value: * * * * * At $20 it’s cheaper than the plastic Kaweco Sport not to mention than the aluminum Kawecos, and it comes with a converter and has a integrated clip.
Rank in my collection: * * * * * Will always need knock around pocket pens I don’t mind damaging or losing. Plus–that finial!
I purchased this pen “experienced” from another collector several years ago, not long after I’d broken through the $200 spending barrier and began acquiring “grail” pens. The model I have is no longer available at retail, as mine has Visconti’s 23k palladium “Dreamtouch” nib which Visconti discontinued ca. 2020. Current versions of this pen have Visconti’s in-house 18k gold nib.
This pen has enough distinctive features that this will be a bit longer of a review.
It is probably the best known pen model from Italian pen company Visconti during the Dante Del Vecchio era of the company. What makes this family of Visconti pens unique is the material they are made out of – lava from Mount Etna in Sicily, mixed with resin. That means that it has a unique hand feel, closest to that experienced with ebonite, rather than acrylic or even celluloid. It is warmer to the touch, in pen terms, but is totally free of the burnt tyre smell which comes with ebonite! The bronze trim on the Bronze Age also acquires a nice patina.
Other distinctive Visconti features that are not unique to this one pen are the hook-safe lock system, which allows it to be capped with a quarter turn, and the vacuum “power filler” filling system. Also, the magnetic “My Pen” finial personalization system if you buy new. And the characteristic Visconti clip shape, meant to echo the lines of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, where the company is based.
I bought this pen more because I felt like it is one of those classic pens that every serious hobbyist should own, rather than because I was in love with it. And I got it used, at a good price, from a reliable seller. And while I have used it, it hasn’t been at the top of my rotation at any time. I don’t know why exactly—perhaps it is because it is too dark and “masculine looking” for my taste. Or that I tend to match my ink colors to my pens, and I’m not fond of black ink!
Something about it called to me today, and I inked it up and started writing with it. I think I’ve been neglecting it unfairly— it is definitely going to go higher in my rotation.
The nib is wet and slightly soft, which is exactly the kind of nib I like. With gentle pressure I can get a touch of line variation from it. The nib is also nicely tuned – whether it came that way out of the box or its previous owner tuned it I don’t know, as even expensive Viscontis are notorious for coming with poorly tuned nibs. Some Italian pen companies are like Italian car companies, and Visconti is one of them.
It is a perfectly comfortable weight in the hand when writing unposted, and I doubt anyone posts it because it’s very back-heavy and long when you do. The section is deep enough and has a gentle flare that I find it comfortable.
It has had one major QC issue – one day as I twisted the cap off, the section just separated from the pen at the trim ring!
I took it with me to the next pen show I attended and gave it to the Coles of London representative – they are Visconti’s distributors in the US. He took it with him and had it repaired and shipped back to me in a few months, and only charged shipping, if even that. So, props to Coles for good customer service – like most luxury pen companies, they stood behind their product even though I admitted I had bought the pen secondhand and it was several years old.
I’m thinking maybe they also gave the nib a complimentary tune after working on the pen, which would make sense, as working on a pen can easily misalign the nib. It is a smoother writer than I remember it being. It was never a bad writer, but I just remember it feeling a bit more feedbacky and “finer” than it does now. Or maybe I had it tuned at a subsequent show. However it got this way, it’s now a really excellent writer, precisely to my taste, and I will be using it more often.
Ratings
Function:
* * * because of being a vac filler without an ink window. There are more recent variations of this pen that do have ink windows.
Value:
* *1/2 if at new retail price ($716 + tax) because of Visconti’s QC issues. Assume it will need its nib tuned by you or a nibmeister.
* * * * if bought used from a trusted private seller for the current going price, approx $500.
Full-size pen with a #5 size nib. International standard cartridge/converter. Brushed aluminum barrel and section. Like all F-C pens, a distinctive design aesthetic.Current retail price $35-57 depending on vendor and color.
To be honest I first bought this, a number of years ago, mainly because of its pink color–this shade of pink is one of my absolute favorite colors. I also wanted to try Faber-Castell since I’d heard great things about their nibs but don’t like their aesthetic enough to invest in one of their pricier pens, but whatever colors were available in their entry-level Grip at the time must not have appealed. And I wanted to have a snap cap pen with a sturdy clip. Sturdy snap cap pens with clips are handy for having in a deep pocket for quick jottings on the go. For me I always have one in my vestment pocket on Sundays.
It’s been on the sidelines in my collection recently as my collection has grown, and as my beloved Waterman Carenes have filled the “snap cap with clip” function. And I generally don’t get along with metal sections. But I pulled it out this week, as I’ve been trying to “shop my collection.”
It is lighter in weight than I remembered it. While the section is definitely aluminum with some substance to it, the barrel is very lightweight-if the specs didn’t say aluminum I’d wonder if it was acrylic. The cap is plastic. The clip is a spring clip and a great fidget item. Technically the cap will “post” but it makes the pen comically long and the posting isn’t at all secure. I’d only post if I absolutely had to.
This is the only metal section pen I have that I truly don’t mind or notice the section being metal. Unlike the Ambition and other more expensive F-C models, the Essentio doesn’t have that infernally short metal polished aluminum lower section which won’t fit your finger. That part is made so short on this model that it’s clear the only place to grip is up higher on the colored section, and because of the texture and narrow diameter and the horizontal channels, I find I don’t have the same issues with it I do with all other metal sections.
The one downside of the horizontal channels is that they collect ink when you fill the pen which can then be hard to get out afterwards, so might transfer to your fingers. So either syringe fill your cart or converter, or be very careful to only dip the nib and feed into the ink, not the section.
Unlike most c/c pens, it also has an ink window, which is a very nice feature.
My pen has an EF nib, for quick writing on bad paper. It is indeed a quality and attractive nib. A bit more feedback than I remembered, but nothing unpleasant at all. Paired with Robert Oster Claret on cheap paper, it writes a bit on the dry side, but with a wetter ink or higher quality paper, such as Plotter DP, it’s fine.
Overall I was glad to have put this pen back into rotation, and it may survive the Great Pen Purge that will come sometime within the next year.
It retails for approximately $58 but is on a really excellent half-price sale at Goldspot as I write this. Comes in several colors. It seems Faber Castell is de-emphasizing this pen in their lineup and offering fewer nib widths, so if you want to acquire one new, you should probably act now.
Function: ****
Value: *** A bit pricier than entry-level c/c pens, but good build quality and nib and distinctive design. If on sale, a very good value.
As my pen collection has grown, some pens have fallen out of frequent rotation. I’m also trying to be more mindful of my spending. And within the next year I hope to sell a lot of my entry-level and mid-level pens to focus my collection more on my favorites, and get it down to a reasonable size.
So now when I get the itch to buy a new pen, I’m trying to be better about “shopping my collection”–spending some time with a pen I haven’t used as much rather than buying a pen. And when I have time, I’ll post a quick review of that pen here, with the tag #shopping my collection.
The review won’t be in depth, and won’t cover the pen measurements or specs, as those things are easily found elsewhere. It will be just my quick impressions as I reacquaint myself with the pen.
I might give the pen some fast subjective ratings, on a scale of 1 to 5 *s.
Function: How well does the pen function as a writing instrument?
Value: if it’s still purchasable at retail, do I think it’s a good value?
Rank in my collection: This is even more subjective than the other two. It’s where aesthetics and sentiment both carry a huge weight. *: It’s already in the “purge” box and is definitely going to stay there. Doesn’t have a role in my collection going forwards. Probably an entry-level pen. **: In the purge box and will probably stay there. Maybe filled a role at one time that has been filled by other pens or this pen in other colors since. Maybe an advanced-beginner pen. ***: Pen that I definitely like, and will keep if space allows. But if not, I won’t be heartbroken. ****: One of my favorites and regularly used. Secure spot in the collection! *****: One of my absolute favorites. Would be very painful if it was lost or had to be sold.
Curation 