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Reflex

Maker: Waterman.

In North America, Waterman is currently a name one associates with rather good pens (something the company’s owners are striving to reinforce).  In Europe, though, as fountain pens are somewhat more ubiquitous, they offer some rather less elevated items.  The Graduate is one of the more familiar-looking items to leak across the Atlantic, but there are others.  One I have yet to put a name to, and there is also the Reflex.

The Reflex is, in looks, aimed at the same sort of market that goes for the Lamy Safari and the Pelikano.  It is a good example, perhaps, of national differences between France and Germany; it is a little more stylish than either of those pens but also slightly less durable and, lacking an ink window, perhaps a little less practical.

It also has the great bad luck to share a name with what might be the worst pen Parker ever made, and to be sold at about the same time.  It has not got a great reputation, but my experience of it suggests that it’s no worse than the Pelikano, and the Pelikano is pretty darned good.  The main difference between this pen and the Graduate is the material of the body.  In some, this similarity extends to the point; my example has a semi-hooded point, the point and feed of which seem to be based somewhat on the Hémisphère’s.

Production Run: c. 1994 (an informant has told me of purchasing one that year) to… possibly still in production.

Cost When New: Cheap.

Size: 13.9 cm long capped, 14.3 cm posted, 13.0 cm uncapped.

Point: Steel.

Body: Plastic.

FillerCartridge, capacity approx. 0.6 ml or 1.4 ml (international pattern).

Waterman Reflex, which if you look at it just right, has a W for a clip.  Classy!

Waterman Reflex, which if you look at it just right, has a W for a clip. Classy!  Note also the top of the cap; it’s hexagonal, not round.

 

 

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