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Waterman is a well known fountain pen brand, and has a long history of pen manufacturing. Waterman offers a wide range of fountain pens, but most of them don’t look appealing to me. However, there is one pen model that is very interesting. The pen to be reviewed is one example from the line. It is the Waterman Carère Ombres et Lumières.
Basic Information:
Fountain Pen: Waterman Carère Ombres et Lumières
Nib: 18K gold fine nib
Filling System: International cartridge/Waterman proprietary converter
Production: Special edition
1. Packaging (9/10):
The Waterman Carère comes with a sturdy cardboard box. The dark blue pen box has a light blue ribbon decorated on the top. It looks very simple and elegant. The pen is securely placed inside the box, and the Waterman converter is provided with the pen. Considering the size of the pen, the box can be smaller, but it’s not wasting too much space anyway.
2. Pen Design (8/10):
The Waterman Carère has a great design, and this special edition finish makes it even more attractive. The pen has a very streamline shape. The clip of the pen also has a matching style, narrow and simple.
The cap of the pen is in black, but the finish on the barrel gets a lot more interesting. From the side at the grip section to the end of the pen, the pen shifts from entirely black, to the black dots sprinkled onto the white background, and eventually to just white, finished by a decorative end piece. The change of the patterns and the colours is implemented nicely here.
One outstanding feature of the pen is the 18K gold inlaid nib. Unlike many common modern fountain pens, the nib is not inserted into the grip section. Instead, it’s right on the top of the grip section, and it’s essentially integrated to the section as one unit. The tapered shape of the nib matches well with the rest of the pen, and the silver coloured plating ensures that the pen remains its cool colour scheme. The grip section is in overall a tapered shape as well, which may look slippery to hold onto. But the material used here ensures that this is not the case.
Much of the pen has a metal construction with lacquer coating. That gives the pen a decent weight. The Waterman Carène is not an oversized pen, but still has a good length, so that the barrel sits comfortably in the hand.
While the design of the pen is well done, I found one issue with the pen. The nib should align with the decorative barrel end piece. However it’s disappointing to see that it was not this way out of the box.
3. Filling System (2/10):
The Waterman Carène can accept international cartridges, but it only takes the proprietary Waterman converter. And this is the problem.
To begin with, the Waterman converter doesn’t even work well with the pen. With my limited use of the pen, multiple converters had been damaged. The opening of the converters cracked, causing ink leakage. There seems to be some design or quality improvements that can be greatly appreciated.
In addition, the Waterman converter is not very easy to use. The converter piston doesn’t operate very smoothly, and ink occasionally gets trapped behind the piston seal. This filling system doesn’t offer much convenience, and has a pretty low quality. The execution here is just poor.
4. Nib Performance (9/10):
This Waterman Carène Ombres et Lumières has an excellent nib. The nib writes without any issue out of the box, and the ink flow is consistent with different inks. The fine nib writes a true fine line, and offers almost no line variation. It’s extremely rigid, considering that it’s an 18K gold nib. Overall, this nib provides a very reliable and enjoyable writing experience.
5. Pen Cleaning and Maintenance (9/10):
Despite that the poor quality of the converter, the cartridge/converter filling system makes the pen easy to clean. Perhaps due to the design, the grip section seems to have the tendency holding quite some ink, which makes cleaning the ink longer than usual, but the process remains simple and straightforward.
The lacquered finish on the pen seems to be strong. There’s barely any visible wear and tear on the barrel. However a pen case or a pen pouch to protect the pen is always recommended.
Summary:
Packaging: 9/10
Pen Design: 8/10
Filling System: 2/10
Nib Performance: 9/10
Pen Cleaning and Maintenance: 9/10
Total: 37/50
The Waterman Carène Ombres et Lumières is a great pen model with beautiful designs. It has a top quality nib in its price range, but the poor converter design and quality make me use the pen less frequently than I wish to. This may not be a common issue on all Waterman Carène fountain pens, but still something to be noted. Nevertheless, the Waterman Carène Ombres et Lumières provides an interesting option to the market, and it is certainly worth considertation.
For the list of pens currently for sale, please visit here.
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