This blog will be the first in a series of posts giving the history of a couple of major pen manufacturers. I’ll give some background and history and then have a brief look at some of their most famous products.

Tl;dr

Started in 1918 in Japan as Namiki Manufacturing Company

Expanded rapidly and was distributed almost everywhere by 1928

Listed on the Tokyo stock exchange in 1962

Very popular and well-respected brand

Pilot is one of the Big Three Japanese pen makers, the other two being Platinum and Sailor. It was initially started in 1915 by Ryosuke Namiki, a professor of engineering, making gold nib pens before expanding their product line and officially becoming the Namiki Manufacturing Company in 1918.

The company expanded rapidly and by 1928 they were selling pens in North and South America, China, Singapore, Australia, Spain and France. In in 1994, Pilot introduced their range of Namiki pens in the USA. These are maki-e pens released as limited editions, the first one being the “White Tiger of Asia”.

Over the course of the following century, they have undergone a series of name changes, at one stage being called the Pilot Ink Company, ltd., a name that suggests to me that at one stage their priorities shifted away from making pens, before settling on the Pilot Pen Corporation that we know and love today. In terms of the business and economics side of things, Pilot have been listed on the Tokyo stock exchange since 1962 and as of 2008 they had a revenue of $850 million and 2,400 employees. An interesting tid-bit of information that I found while researching this post is that Pilot is part of the Luxor Group, an Indian group that focuses on writing instruments, alongside Parker and Waterman, strange company for a company as innovative as Pilot.

Of course, Pilot does not only make fountain pens, they make all sorts of stationery such as highlighters, ballpoints and markers. In my opinion, they are in a unique position in the market as they offer some of the most highly regarded products all the way from the G2 gel roller that only costs a couple of dollars, to the Vanishing Point fountain pen at about $150 and all the way up to the eye-wateringly expensive maki-e pens at up to $8,000.

For the next part of our quick look, I’ll give a brief overview of some of their major and most famous products. I have to note first that I haven’t personally used any of the following pens!

Vanishing Point

Pilot debuted the Vanishing Point in 1964 under the name “Capless”. The pen features a retractable nib mechanism that is extended by clicking the back of the pen, much like a ballpoint. The name was changed to “Vanishing Point” in 1972 for the American market and has been a relatively popular choice ever since. The retractable nib is a quite uncommon feature amongst fountain pens, with the only pens that I can think of off the top of my head being the Visconti Pininfarina Nanotech and a couple of offering from Montblanc, such as the Bohème and Heritage 1912, all of which are expensive.

Today, the Vanishing Point is seen as a good choice for a pen that is a step up from beginner pens such as the Lamy Al-star/Safari or the Pilot Metropolitan, a pen that deserves its own entire blog post so all I will say about the it is that it has successfully captured the beginner end of the market.

Over the years, Pilot have of course released different colours, like the ever-popular matte black, and styles, with a thinner version called the Decimo. They have also released premium versions of the Vanishing Point with raden inlays and gold nibs.

G2 Gel Roller

“The Number 1 Selling Pen in America”, at least that’s what Pilot says. In any case, this gel roller, released in 1997, is one of the most popular pens on the market.

Honestly, I don’t have much to say about this pen except for the fact that a lot of people love it.

Myu/Murex

The Myu and the Murex have become some of the most sought after pens for collectors on the market. On that point, there are a lot of in-depth histories of these two pens so if you wanted to check it out, it would only be a Google search away.

The Myu was released in 1971 solely on the Japanese market, another reason that they are so sought after for Western collectors. The Myu is a fairly short pen, with an inlaid nib a full-metal construction. In 1977, Pilot released the Murex, which is a longer version of the Myu.

There are a number of different versions of these pens, the black striped one is particularly drool-worthy to me. Unfortunately, these pens were manufactured for very long but in 2008 Pilot listened to the many fans and released the M90 as an homage to this classic pen.

So, that was a brief look at the Pilot Pen Corporation. I hope you learnt something new, and I would like to give a special mention to Ross Sutler who runs a page dedicated the history of the Myu and Murex, which was a great help to me and I would suggest that you check it out if you have the inclination.