PDA

View Full Version : New Phileas



stub
September 7th, 2018, 03:57 AM
This is just a heads up because I know there are some people who are fans of this pen. I've watched as prices on Phileas pens kind of get silly but it seems Waterman has smelled the coffee (or I, alternately have been asleep) and reissued a simplified Phileas without the gaudy (but charming) hardware. My local B & M had a new arrival labelled "New Phileas" which comes with a single toned nib solid barrel colors and transparent section. It comes in black, navy, burgundy, and a lighter blue. Looks eyedropper-able. Nib is just as fantastic as the old one and looks the same. Same funky clip.

I am not sure if this is just new to our part of the little blue marble or is everywhere or was released in other places.

Eats the other pens in its class for lunch. Anyone else see these or is this old news?

stub
September 7th, 2018, 07:11 AM
New Phileas:

4215942160

Chrissy
September 7th, 2018, 07:53 AM
Nice. Looks a bit more like a Kultur than a Phileas though. I wonder if the sections are interchangeable?

stub
September 7th, 2018, 08:16 AM
It looks like a kulture but the box itself is labled "New Phileas" on the Waterman applied box sticker, so I am a bit confused. I see no mention of a "new" Phileas anywhere but I also don't see these colors anywhere when I search for Kulture. My hunch is that this is a fresh reboot from Waterman that is so minty fres that it hasn't hit the sites yet. The B & M told me that they were brand new (and he has some older semi-translucent ones he showed me last time). He knows I like these pen and have been looking for a Philease and he just took out the box and said, "you'll like these, they are brand new"

The sticker on the box is from Waterman. So ...

Anyway. These suckers write like the wind. Super fun cheapy pens.

jmccarty3
September 7th, 2018, 11:42 AM
An interesting sidelight is that the Phileas nib is the steel version of the 18k nib that adorned the L'Etalon, one of the finest nibs Waterman ever made. Would that they would reintroduce the L'Etalon, but in a more durable version.

Chrissy
September 7th, 2018, 11:44 AM
An interesting sidelight is that the Phileas nib is the steel version of the 18k nib that adorned the L'Etalon, one of the finest nibs Waterman ever made. Would that they would reintroduce the L'Etalon, but in a more durable version.
For this reason four of my Phileas pens have L'Etalon nibs in them. They are relatively straightforward to swap over if you can get the gold Etalon nibs. :)

pajaro
September 8th, 2018, 01:49 PM
An interesting sidelight is that the Phileas nib is the steel version of the 18k nib that adorned the L'Etalon, one of the finest nibs Waterman ever made. Would that they would reintroduce the L'Etalon, but in a more durable version.
For this reason four of my Phileas pens have L'Etalon nibs in them. They are relatively straightforward to swap over if you can get the gold Etalon nibs. :)

I second this recommendation. I have only one L'etalon nib, an extra fine, in a turquoise marbly Phileas. It is a bit different from the usual Phileas experience. In this light weight pen, it is a delightful experience.

Chrissy
September 8th, 2018, 02:44 PM
I second this recommendation. I have only one L'etalon nib, an extra fine, in a turquoise marbly Phileas. It is a bit different from the usual Phileas experience. In this light weight pen, it is a delightful experience.

I occasionally find myself wondering what will happen when I shuffle off this mortal coil and my Phileas pens appear on ebay with gold nibs in them. :p No-one will believe what they see......:confused:

RocketRyan
September 8th, 2018, 03:53 PM
I second this recommendation. I have only one L'etalon nib, an extra fine, in a turquoise marbly Phileas. It is a bit different from the usual Phileas experience. In this light weight pen, it is a delightful experience.

I occasionally find myself wondering what will happen when I shuffle off this mortal coil and my Phileas pens appear on ebay with gold nibs in them. :p No-one will believe what they see......:confused:

How did you get on with the purple one?

jmccarty3
September 8th, 2018, 04:40 PM
To return to the original topic, has anyone else seen the "New Phileas?"

stub
September 8th, 2018, 09:18 PM
1. Was the l'etalon not durable? I have a lot of Watermans from the 80s and 90s that did not age well.

2. I'll try to remember to photograph the box with the stickers for this pen.

3. How in gods name did y'all get the Phileas nib out? I have never been able to pull one. If the are friction fit then they are in there really good and tight. I tried, to no avail to pull this one but nope.

Jon Szanto
September 9th, 2018, 12:49 AM
3. How in gods name did y'all get the Phileas nib out? I have never been able to pull one. If the are friction fit then they are in there really good and tight. I tried, to no avail to pull this one but nope.

A friend of mine (username: Force, on FPN) had a post a couple years ago on his method. I think the tools were a vicegrips, some rubber grip sheets (for padding and grip) a metal washer and 2 flat blade screwdrivers. You are essentially using all this to 'lever' out the nib and feed since you can't use a knockout block on this section design. You can find the post here (http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/244015-phileas-phever/page-19#entry2971615) as long as you can log into FPN. If you can't, let me know and I'll find an alternate way to post the info. Bedtime for me, however.

Chrissy
September 9th, 2018, 01:01 AM
:offtopic:
And that's after some heat to the section either in a USC or by wrapping the nib up then using a hair dryer to warm the section enough that the nib and feed will pull out.

With the method that Force recommended you have to be sure not to "waggle" it back and forth too much as the end of the section might split up the mould lines. You also have to wrap the nib with plenty of padding on the nib and the feed.

Chrissy
September 9th, 2018, 01:02 AM
:focus: Sorry for going off topic jmcarty3, I haven't seen these new Phileas pens anywhere in the UK. :(

Sailor Kenshin
September 9th, 2018, 07:39 AM
The appearance of the new 'Phileas' doesn't appeal to me. I have two of the originals, a plain black Fine and a blue marble Medium, and it was all the little phinishing details that pleased my eye. ;)

I do have a Kultur. It's never written as nicely as the Phileas.

jmccarty3
September 9th, 2018, 08:37 AM
1. Was the l'etalon not durable? I have a lot of Watermans from the 80s and 90s that did not age well.

I have several L'Etalons. The metal piece at the tail had a tendency to come off, but (much worse) the feed and/or section tended to develop cracks, leading to leaking. Replacement parts are hard to come by. It's a shame, because the nib is so excellent. I loved the EF nib on my first L'Etalon--it had just a hint of Architect about it: narrow vertical stroke, slightly wider horizontal stroke. Unfortunately, I dropped the pen and bent the nib. A nibmeister repaired it, but it never wrote the same as before.

pajaro
September 12th, 2018, 05:53 PM
I haven't had any trouble pulling the nib on a Phileas or on a Kultur. I just used a rubber jar gripping pad and gently rocked the nib while pulling. Chrissy's warning about not rocking too vigorously lest you crack the section should be borne in mind. Phileas sections cracked easily.

Jon Szanto
September 12th, 2018, 06:34 PM
I can't seem to find anything about these pens online whatsoever. Does anyone know the MSRP for them?

Chrissy
September 12th, 2018, 09:00 PM
I found nothing about them either. :( IMHO, the new Phileas looks much more like the Kultur than the original Phileas.

Without wandering too much off topic again I can confirm that in the event your Phileas section cracks, it's usually cheaper to buy a replacement by buying a Kultur pen if you can get one with a black section. Unless you really quite fancy a Phileas with a demonstrator section that is. :)

Even though the Kultur section has a chrome band rather than the regular gold-plated Phileas band, it's fairly straight-forward to swap the bands over, although they are quite tight too. Not as tight as new nibs are in new sections though. :(

Once you've removed the nib and feed from a section, it seems easier to do in the event that you ever need to remove it again.

Some are really tough. In my USC I have a mixture of soapy cleaner and ammonia. Giving a section a run in there with water that gets quite warm seems to help a lot. The soapy cleaner seems to lubricate the whole thing so that the nib and feed come out more easily. :thumb:

stub
September 12th, 2018, 09:14 PM
Here is the box. But just realized that this is all in Korean. & of course you know that one of the wierd things about Pen dealers is that they choose and pay for their own packaging. Koreans like boxes and (4 or 5 retailers have all told me) that pens w/o boxes do not sell. But this also came with a Waterman warrentee card and a printed folded up manual.

So here i am giving you lots of information. None of it useful. If this pen starts showing up elsewhere then mystery solved. But it seem to be sub-google and I have not heard any reports of this pen elsewhere. The pen is marked New Phileas. On the plus side. It writes like a champ. It's better than most of the other pens in it's class.

42320

stub
September 12th, 2018, 09:15 PM
Price was roughly equivalent to $28 USD

Jon Szanto
September 12th, 2018, 09:46 PM
Price was roughly equivalent to $28 USD

Well, that's the kicker. It seems *so* easy to make things out of 'pretty' plastics and patterns that it is unfortunate these seem to be mono-color pens. That said, $28 is an awfully good price point for a pen that works as well as a Phileas. I'm guessing there is no brass insert in the pen, which will make it feel lighter (and cheaper) and truly put it in the Kultur category, but at least they didn't totally overprice it.

OTOH, I just took posession of a fairly minty original Phil with box and convertor for $45. I think that's fair.

stub
September 12th, 2018, 09:53 PM
Of course this much like a Kulture & makes me wonder if New Phileas is really a culture called something different for the local market. But I have not seen either pen in these colors before.

I would love to get an original Phileas but have never seen one at an agreeable price.

stub
September 12th, 2018, 11:54 PM
Price was roughly equivalent to $28 USD

Well, that's the kicker. It seems *so* easy to make things out of 'pretty' plastics and patterns that it is unfortunate these seem to be mono-color pens. That said, $28 is an awfully good price point for a pen that works as well as a Phileas. I'm guessing there is no brass insert.

No brass on this one. The price also included a waterman converter. So it was a nice price for a pen that writes fantastic and has a hinged clip. Great value imo.

Chrissy
September 13th, 2018, 02:52 AM
Price was roughly equivalent to $28 USD

Well, that's the kicker. It seems *so* easy to make things out of 'pretty' plastics and patterns that it is unfortunate these seem to be mono-color pens. That said, $28 is an awfully good price point for a pen that works as well as a Phileas. I'm guessing there is no brass insert in the pen, which will make it feel lighter (and cheaper) and truly put it in the Kultur category, but at least they didn't totally overprice it.

OTOH, I just took posession of a fairly minty original Phil with box and convertor for $45. I think that's fair.
I think that's fair too. :applause: You're very fortunate to get these deals. First, Montblanc Racing Green ink, now a very nice Phileas. :)

Chrissy
September 13th, 2018, 02:54 AM
How did you get on with the purple one?
Sorry RocketRyan I missed this post. :( The purple Phileas writes very nicely thank you. :) It has had it's nib and feed out plus a 10 minute cycle through the USC, and is currently in my box with my other Phileas pens. I should take a pic. :)

Jon Szanto
September 13th, 2018, 10:04 AM
I think that's fair too. :applause: You're very fortunate to get these deals. First, Montblanc Racing Green ink, now a very nice Phileas. :)

Not to mention the flawless Pelikan M200 marbled blue, in advance of the Hubs, for $35.00. Now, that was a sumgai.

RocketRyan
September 15th, 2018, 01:45 AM
How did you get on with the purple one?
Sorry RocketRyan I missed this post. :( The purple Phileas writes very nicely thank you. :) It has had it's nib and feed out plus a 10 minute cycle through the USC, and is currently in my box with my other Phileas pens. I should take a pic. :)

Glad you like it, it just did little for me. I traded it for a Sheaffer prelude because I bought one with a 14k nib, the signature model, unfortunately the steel nib version wrote better. We live and learn.

stub
November 10th, 2018, 04:57 AM
I am ready to admit that I was 100% and misled on this. The "New Phileas" sticker on my box must just be a idiosyncrasy of the Korean market. These are just Kulture and they are simply new to me and looks like I was too excited for something that truly was too good to be true. I think these are Safari killers. Great pens but sadly I seen no other signs that these have been re-issued.

I would still really like to find an original to add to this Kulture/New Phileas.

Sorry if this thread leads anyone astray or gives false hope,

aquafox
November 10th, 2018, 12:06 PM
For all we know, Waterman might very well being still producing and selling the Phileas (called Translucent) and the Graduate both chromed and painted (simply called Allure and Chromé) along with Parker Vector and the excellent Bic Easy Clic: attached picture is from a French supermarket, taken October 2018.

http://piastrinemilitari.altervista.org/foto/IMG_20181014_110315.jpg

Maybe it's for domestic market only?

Photo by Iorek of fountainpen.it

Chrissy
November 10th, 2018, 01:34 PM
I always thought that difference was the Kultur was chrome plated and came with a monochrome chrome plated nib, whereas the Phileas was gold plated and had a two-tone nib. Although it's always possible there is a gold plated Kultur or a chrome plated Phileas that I haven't seen. :)

pajaro
November 10th, 2018, 02:10 PM
Waterman could use a revitalization.

Jon Szanto
November 10th, 2018, 03:37 PM
I always thought that difference was the Kultur was chrome plated and came with a monochrome chrome plated nib, whereas the Phileas was gold plated and had a two-tone nib. Although it's always possible there is a gold plated Kultur or a chrome plated Phileas that I haven't seen. :)

Another very important difference (IMO) is that the Phileas had a brass liner in the barrel, which adds some heft to an otherwise very light pen. I do not have a Kultur pen to weigh, but if anyone can weight the barrel/nib/section alone (no cart/conv attached), I can do the same with an original Phileas and we'll see if it is an important difference or all in my head! (IMH)

Chrissy
November 10th, 2018, 10:59 PM
Another very important difference (IMO) is that the Phileas had a brass liner in the barrel, which adds some heft to an otherwise very light pen. I do not have a Kultur pen to weigh, but if anyone can weight the barrel/nib/section alone (no cart/conv attached), I can do the same with an original Phileas and we'll see if it is an important difference or all in my head! (IMH)

I'm sure that's right and I have a section and two different barrels (Phileas and Kultur) that I can weigh later. I only considered cosmetic looking differences that could show up immediately when looking at pictures of the different models. :)

Cyril
August 31st, 2020, 05:46 AM
An interesting sidelight is that the Phileas nib is the steel version of the 18k nib that adorned the L'Etalon, one of the finest nibs Waterman ever made. Would that they would reintroduce the L'Etalon, but in a more durable version.
For this reason four of my Phileas pens have L'Etalon nibs in them. They are relatively straightforward to swap over if you can get the gold Etalon nibs. :)

I recently won two Phileas pens and I am waiting for the delivery. I also have a Gold nib and I am not sure it is "Etalon" I am going to check it anyhow.
These two pens are very old and say< made in France > So I thought they are getting into vintage catogory.

Chrissy
August 31st, 2020, 07:38 AM
L'Etalon nib is a slightly larger version than the Preface nib. It's the only Waterman gold nib that will fit the Phileas.
Waterman produced Phileas pens in the 1990's. Not particularly "vintage" to many. :)

Cyril
September 18th, 2020, 12:02 PM
My new Watermans. Phileas Red marbled and Blue. Medium Nibs they are too medium fo me as I am a fine Man..:)
They are fantastic writers.

Chrissy
September 18th, 2020, 02:41 PM
My new Watermans. Phileas Red marbled and Blue. Medium Nibs they are too medium fo me as I am a fine Man..:)
They are fantastic writers.

In the event that you might want a Phileas F nibs instead of the M, that might be something I could help you with. I've removed several of my Phileas nibs and replaced them with Etalon nibs so there may be at least one F nib in that bunch.
It looks like you may have already fitted your gold Etalon nib into one of your Phileas pens. :)