Well, well, well…. Platinum has a new fountain pen in town called the Curidas! And, it is retractable.
I was actually really excited about these when I first saw them, and am extra excited to be able to give one of them a first look here on The Clicky Post. Special thanks to Pen Chalet who was able to get their hands on one prior to the expected delivery and were willing to let me have a look.
When we think of retractable fountain pens there really are only a few in the market that come to mind: Pilot Vanishing Point, Lamy Dialog 3, Montblanc Boheme. While these are highly beloved pens for their convenience and function, they tend to be a bit on the spendy side starting at around the $150 range.
The coming soon Curidas fountain pen seems to be Platinum’s attempt at trying to bridge the gap of retractable and affordable; no small task. How’d they do?
Upon initial inspection, the Curidas has a very familiar look overall: barrel, clip attached to barrel, long knock mechanism out the back. If you are familiar with these features then the pen will be like riding a bike.
One difference is that the barrel and knock are made from a translucent plastic (vs metal) which makes the pen a little bit lighter, but the build quality feels extremely solid. The barrel comes in five colors and the version I have to play with is called Gran Red which is definitely red (less of a wine color). Like a ruby color, and the pictures actually do the color some justice. Some of the others that stand out as ones I’d like are the Prism Crystal (clear) and Graphite Smoke (black/grey).
From a size and feel perspective I’d consider the pen to be a bit on the bulky side. Larger in diameter than the Vanishing Point and easily a half inch longer, mostly in the knock.
Being so long, I would expect that this pen will have a difficult time fitting in some shirt pockets, although the clip does sit about an inch lower than on the VP. That being said, that means the top of the pen will stick out a little over an inch.
In hand though, the pen is a near perfect size once the nib has been extended and the knock is tucked away.
The nib on the pen is what makes it more affordable being stainless steel, but I’ve not found it to diminish the writing experience at all. The sample pen is a fine nib (Japanese) so it puts down a fairly narrow line, but has been extremely comfortable. Just a slight bit of feedback, but no skipping or slow starts.
If I had my preferences, I would generally always go with a medium nib, but this one actually feels pretty great.
One of the main gripes about the Pilot Vanishing Point for a lot of people is the clip placement. Being integrated into the barrel (due to no cap), it often gets in the way of where people put their fingers. I have a more traditional “triangle” grip so this has never been an issue for me since my thumb and index finger sit just to the side. While the Curidas has that extra space above the clip as mentioned above, the overall shape of the clip is a bit sharper and wider right where your fingers go, so I find that it tends to push on my thumb and index finger where the VP doesn’t.
If you are one of the people that do the Vanishing Point hacks where they remove the clips, Platinum is way ahead of you. They designed the clip to be removable and provided a special tool to do so. The tool is really small (like a thumbnail) and has a very strong chance of being lost if left in my office… almost did like three times during the review.
While this is cool and allows for customization of the experience, it feels a bit overkill if I’m honest. And, when you remove the clip there are still plastic protrusions that stick out from the barrel, so it is like you’re getting rid of one obstruction just to run into some others. If the clip somehow tucked into slots within the barrel and made it completely smooth upon removal, I could see how the fuss might be worth it to some. Regardless, the removal process takes a bit of practice, but is easy to do and doesn’t permanently damage your pen.
The internals are a bit more involved than expected. There is the nib unit which locks in place with a twisting/locking mechanism, a giant spring (removable), and then as part of the nib unit another piece that locks onto the nib that holds either a cartridge or converter inside. While the other retractable pens also have internal parts, many of these have been engineered to be hidden and are a bit more plug and play. That being said, everything works smoothly.
Like the others there is a trap door within the tip of the pen that when retracted, seals up the nib to keep things from drying out. According to Platinum, this baby can sit untouched for 6+ months without drying up! That is impressive. With my Vanishing Point I let it sit for a few weeks and it feels like it starts to get a bit crusty.
I design element that I really don’t like is that there is a raised slot/hole right underneath the tip of the barrel where the nib comes out that allows for a plastic fin coming off the trap door to go into. I’m sure there is an engineering reason for this, but if you hold the barrel closer to the end, this will be sticking into your middle finger which doesn’t feel great. When you slide your finger back just a bit it is fine, but this seems like an odd thing to do considering all the work that goes into being able to remove the clip as an obstruction…. just saying.
At $80 retail ($64 on the street from Pen Chalet at 20% off), the pen is super reasonable and feels like a good workhorse. Not the prettiest pen and not “cheap” by any means, but for a retractable pen in the market it is by far the least expensive option. I’ll certainly be picking up one to have and use in my own collection (I think I’m going with the clear barrel…).
Special thanks again to Pen Chalet for loaning the Curidas to me! If you are interested in picking one up, definitely visit their site and put in your pre-orders.