Every year there are new pens that come out that get me really excited, and I’m feeling in a really reflective mood as we’re closing out 2017 here. This list is one that my team and I put together as 10 of our hottest pens, using a rather subjective and unscientific means of choosing what is here. It mostly boils down to my opinion, and is limited to pens we’ve carried here at Goulet so it’s not exhaustive to all fountain pens that existed in 2017.

Looking back, this year was the year of special editions and really exciting colors. But that doesn’t mean they’ve all been really expensive! I have pens ranging here from the sub $30 range to almost $800, really something for everybody. Due to the special edition nature of many of these, they may not even be available as this video publishes, but that’s just how it’s gone this year. Without further ado, here’s my list in no particular order…

Had big shoes to fill from Dark Lilac last yer

Kept with the matte theme, all the ink was going in under an hour

Black trim was a hit

Wasn’t as anticipated as DL, but still has been an incredibly popular pen







We had a hard time keeping Premieres in stock this year, partly because of Edison’s capacity and downed machines this summer

Delphinium is my personal favorite color that we’ve ever done

Blue and purple with white swirls, such a bold and dramatic color, I love it!

We couldn’t make enough, literally, and they’re not available anymore

Stipula Etruria Rainbow Prisma 88

I’d been wanting to sell a Stipula Etruria for years, but they don’t make them regularly and it just never worked out for us

Rainbow pens have typically been pretty hot for us, and this one was a stunner

Layers resins to give an blended rainbow effect, very cool, demonstrator look

Titanium nib, piston filler

Nice size, very comfortable writer

Only 88 pieces and we got a bunch of them, and they just flew faster than we could have anticipated

More will be coming in other colors in 2018, and in greater quantity

TWSBI Special Editions

SO many colorful TWSBI’s!

All special editions, none of them hung around for us, they all flew

Mini AL Blue- March

580 AL Turquoise- June

Eco Turquoise- August

Classic in White- Sept

Classic in Turquoise- Sept

Mini AL Gold- Oct

Eco-T Blue- Nov

580 AL Rose- Dec

Oh, and the Vac700R was in there too

Pilot comes out with a limited edition VP every year, and this year was sweet

Same ombre effect that Twilight had in 2015

Crimson Sunrise only lasted a few hours, and it was gone

Pilot’s hitting their 100th anniversary and while I don’t know if there’s anything special with the VP for that, I’m hoping there is

Visconti Opera Master Luna

Visconti to me has always been a special brand because we pursued them for 4 years before really getting on their radar

We carried a limited edition Opera Master in Crimson Tide very soon after carrying the brand, and we had never really carried pens at that price before so it was a gamble for us

We had 40 pens total then, and we haven’t had an opportunity for an LE Opera Master until the Luna

The opportunity came about because this gorgeous blue sparkly material just SCREAMED Goulet, and the stars aligned

We had some say in how many pens we could have made for us, Visconti loves the number 8 and they like to end their series in 8’s

188 is ambitious for us and we will likely have these pens for a bit, and that’s okay

We are so thrilled to have such a beautiful pen as an exclusive

Double-reservoir power filler, ink window

Blue demonstrator with sparkle in it

Rhodium trim, large palladium nib

I debated about putting this pen on the list because it only released a couple of weeks ago and still have to kind of prove itself as a “hot pen”

I felt it was important to include it because it’s significant when Lamy releases a new pen model

Lamy spent 3 years designing this pen with famous UK designer Jasper Morrison

It’s a heavier and more robust pen than their Safari and Al-Star, LX and even Studio

There was so much anticipation for the release of this pen, the US distributor changed during the buildup towards the launch, so I think it’ll actually pick up steam and become more relevant in 2018

Pelikan M805 Ocean Swirl

Pelikan was really on a roll this year with their special editions

They had a number of white and brown pens, which is great but not my flavor

The Ocean Swirl though, it was love at first sight for me

I’m pretty much a sucker for every Pelikan swirl pen, and this one got me

They also lowered the price on this from past SE’s

They don’t always come out with m800 series pens, they’re slightly larger and not as universally appealing as the 400’s and 600’s, but dang, it’s big and beautiful!

I never would have predicted this time last year that I would have two Stipula pens on this list, because I hadn’t sold a single Stipula pen in several years!

This pen was so divisive amongst our team, we ALMOST didn’t even carry it! That’s sometimes tough with new pen styles, you just don’t know

Something clearly resonated with this pen, because we sold out of our first shipment in hours, we couldn’t believe it

It’s a cool pen though! piston filler, hot orange ink window, heavy iron body, it’s unique!

Limited-edition pen with only 351 pieces, I’m hoping we see this pen in other colors next year

Sometimes mistakes can turn into something beautiful…this pen was never supposed to exist!

Conklin was intending to come out with the Duragraph in Purple Nights and in Red Nights

This color was supposed to be the red, but ended up being too close to the purple and Conklin didn’t feel comfortable with it

They asked us about them, we negotiated a price break to take the whole batch, and passed on that price break to our customers

We named the pen Merlot because it was a wine color, and we thought for sure we’d have the pens for months

There was a logistical issue because they were backordered on fine nibs! So we launched with just the mediums and stubs, and they ALL FLEW

It would have been post-holidays to get fine nibs, so we just had them put stubs on the rest, and they sold out immediately

We were dumbfounded, couldn’t believe how fast they went

Purple Nights then came out and also started flying, but will be an ongoing edition

Red Nights will come later into 2018, as a regular edition

There have been a number of inks worth mentioning this year, some of the hottest that deserve an honorable mention:

What’s been your favorite this year? Leave us a comment!

Write On,

Brian Goulet