The Cross Peerless 125, at $405 discounted is the most expensive pen I have purchased. I feel like if I say nice things about it, I might be biased a bit by the amount I paid. If I say bad things about it, same thing. The excitement of the sale long behind me, I'll try to focus on the pen in and of itself.
I tried this pen out at Paradise Pen Co., and kept coming back to it, not based on the design, which I slowly came to appreciate, but the nib. I've often proclaimed the only thing that really matters about a pen is how it writes, and I felt this pen called me out and asked me to prove it. Because it wrote very well indeed. The word "skating" kept occurring to me. Though this pen is available in many finishes (and higher prices), mine is the black lacquer.
The pen is similar in shape to the Townsend, but is slightly shorter and thicker. End of barrel to end of section, it's actually a hair shorter than the Bailey, though with the larger nib it is longer, and certainly a stouter pen. More reminiscent of other brands signature cigar pens, but with the Cross design language, with a bent clip and truncated tassie, it sports a subtle Swarovski crystal (Is it required to say Swarovski? It's a bead, and you can barely see it. Hope it didn't add a lot to the price.)
The pen is heavy, at 47g capped and filled. and 29g uncapped. It's 145mm long capped, 129mm uncapped, and 157mm posted. The cap is heavy, and while it doesn't bother me when posting the pen, I prefer it unposted, in part because of the thickness of the cap. I wouldn't call it unbalanced, though if you don't take care to post it with the clip up, the bent clip will interfere with the writing angle.
The pen snaps to post, securely, and screws to cap. The threads are smooth and not numerous. They sit just beneath a nice ring, with CROSS PEERLESS 125 in raised chrome letters on a black band. The end of the barrel is metal, with a groove near the end, presumably to aid in posting. The posting help is appreciated and helps ensure that the pen finish isn't damaged. However, I sometimes find a bit of ink in the groove from the cap.
The section is stout and easy to grip and is of the same black lacquer finish as the barrel. There is a thin metal ring near the nib with a very slight lip, just enough to know where your fingers are.
The nib is really pleasant. Mine is a medium rhodium plated 18k nib, and it reads "Peerless 125 -M- 18K 750 CROSS". Around the lettering is a border, and there are longitudinal lines which fill in to a second border at the nib end. As mentioned earlier, it skates on fountain pen paper, but seems to write well on any paper. It's closer to a fine than a medium, and writes pleasantly wetly. The nib is a bit prone to creep and can lead to small amounts of ink in the cap, and if you post it, on the end of the barrel.
The clip is sturdier looking than the similarly shaped one on the Townsend (which is plenty sturdy already), with more metal used. It's very tight. When clipping to my shirt pocket it picked up a tuft of fabric and it is still wedged in where the metal folds on itself. I don't think it would damage any pockets, but the extra metal used I think folds into sort of a box arrangement under the nib and could have gaps to catch fabric threads. The clip has "CROSS" in raised lettering on a field of black, which looks nice and matches the barrel ring.
The pen is a fingerprint magnet, but the finish isn't slick and the pen is easy to hold.
The pen comes with a very nice box with a translucent stand that says "Cross" on it, and comes with a threaded Cross converter. When I bought mine at Paradise Pen Co. they threw in some Cross polishing cloths, which I certainly have use for.
I like this pen, and don't mind carrying it to work, if my shirt pocket is crisp enough to not buckle under the weight, or I am carrying it in a sturdy leather case in a pants pocket. I find it writes a bit too wetly for slick restaurant receipts, though this is the case with many pens. If the price is too dear, consider the Townsend, which is available with certain finishes in the $100 range (and others which cost more than this pen). If you like the black lacquer, consider the much less expensive Jinhao 159 with black enamel. For a similar nib, look at the Sailor 1911 Large Realo, and for rather less than the price of this pen you get a piston filler that won't rip your pocket off of your shirt.
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