I certainly love a good pocket pen and have tried quite a few. So when I saw that Kaweco had come out with this little beauty, I knew I needed to get my hands on one.
Now, Kaweco has had a Liliput ballpoint before, but it was retractable and really small (even for a Liliput). With bigger hands, I found it to be a bit too dainty for me to use comfortably which was a bit of a bummer.
In comes this version to the rescue...
I swear, Kaweco knew my personal plight and designed this pen for me. Well, probably not, but it checks off most of the boxes I was hoping for so they were apparently in tune with the challenges the retractable version users faced.
If you are familiar with the Liliput fountain pen, then you'll be familiar with this pen as they are, in essence, the same. It appears that Kaweco engineered a really cool grip section to fit into the existing capped Liliput platform and they did it beautifully.
The cap posts via small threads to the back of the pen which nearly doubles the size and makes it extremely comfortable to hold. Also, the grip section is longer in the ballpoint version than the fountain pen which makes it even LONGER!
Pretty fantastic.
They designed the pen around the small D1 refill which comes in huge variety. Fisher Space Pen, Zebra Gel, Uni-ball Jetstream... all possible. They may not last a super long time, but a small pocket pen like this isn't really meant for writing your life story.
One of the more impressive and cool pieces of the pen is the metal piece that holds the refill itself. It has like a "gear" look to it for easy grip and a small thought to insert the refill into. It looks like a little engine part. One thing that Kaweco has nailed down is their machining partnership (with whomever it is). When I reviewed the Kaweco Supra (the Liliput's big brother), I had the same impression that their level of quality on these was impeccable.
At this time they only come in brass, but my hopes in the long term is that they expand into the other metals (like stainless steel as soon as possible...) to add some variety. I'm sure this initial run was more of a test in the market, but I certainly hope they do well.
Also, being brass, they will patina nicely over time but will have that "metal smell' commonly found with brass or copper pens.
It doesn't appear that these are available yet in the US market, or at least not very easily, but the European and UK based retailers seem to have them.
For example, Cult Pens carries them and with shipping would put them around $75.
All in all, super solid pen that I love to carry and definitly worth checking out.