Many fashion, jewellery house and accessory brands have dabbled with writing implements and Cartier are no exception. At present their only fountain pen is a hand made £136,000 gauche product, however early to mid last decade they sold the Art Deco inspired Diablo at a far more reasonable price.

From the limited research I did there is no definitive proof who made this pen for Cartier, however the consensus is Montblanc and I concur with this view. Shine a light through the barrel and you get the same reddish glow you see from the ‘precious resin’ (poor translation of the name of the material, Edelharz) found on the Montblanc Meisterstuck models. Additionally (and this is the reason often sited), the nib and feed are the same as #5 one used by MB on some of their pens, just with different branding.

Now this pen is not mine and as a result I do not know the original price or what the packaging was like. I do know it came with a couple of short international cartridges and a branded screw in converter, which was installed. The back story is the pen belongs to a friend of mine from one of my other hobbies. He recently found it was a little scratchy and could be a hard starter. I found the tines were slightly out, so borrowed it to fix (he has another pen he’ll use in the mean time). While fixing the tine alignment I also gave it a good clean, removing a decade or more worth of dried ink and gunk. As it will be a while before I see my friend again he has allowed me to use this Diablo for this review.

If it weren’t for the sapphire in the cap it could almost be argued the looks of the pen have been more inspired by the industrial functionality of Bauhaus rather than the curves, flow and flair of Art Deco, however it is that jewelled domed finial that brings the diablo’s looks in to the 1920s. It could be argued that the three chrome bands add to this, though only the one by the sapphire is not functional. Still with one exception it is the sort of pen you could imagine a between the wars French philosopher or politician using, making notes at the bottom of a menu at Le Deux Magot while sipping a black coffee or pastis.

The sapphire cabochon is a trademark of Cartier, found on many of their products, however I must admit I am not a fan, not here anyhow. It juts out from the finial, almost as if added as an after through. Those are my personal thoughts though and I suspect I am not the target audience for many a Cartier product (especially as I do not wear jewellery).

The exception to the 1920s influence is the size. The Diablo is comparable to a Montblanc 146, not a Pelikan M400. Sure it is not oversized, but this is very much a pen for the modern wielder.

The cap removes in just a turn and a half to reveal the short section which is surprisingly steeply angled between the two bands. The latter is actually part of the inner barrel threads unit, into which the cartridge or converter is also secured. I find I hold this pen slightly further back due the narrowness near the nib and as a result my thumb rests on the raised lip behind the threads. Unfortunately this is near square on, with the result I do find the edge is noticeable and a little sharp. I have encountered worse, but due to the shortness of the section I’m not going to be able to avoid resting a finger or thumb on this part.

The balance point with the converter installed and full is actually mid way along the uncapped pen, despite the metal inner threads/cartridge capture. The net result is the diablo feels slightly back weighted, though not by much. Unless you post the cap this is no real issue, however if you do then the pen becomes very unbalanced in the hand.

Speaking of which the cap does post securely, but due to the aforementioned point I would not recommend this for most people. It is a heavy cap at 11.8g with the body being 15.4g. The band at the bottom of the cap has Cartier impressed on the front and rear.

The clip is quite simple and traditional being bent down from the mounting ring with a nub under the bottom edge and a simple rotated Cartier C on the front. It works well, sliding easily over a pocket seem and keeping the pen securely in place.

The nib is 18k gold, and as previously mentioned a size #5 which almost certainly is from Montblanc. Having fixed the tines I have found the hard starting is down to a mixture of paper and pen angle. With my usual writing style on smoother paper I find I get an initial skip but then once the inks starts to flow all is fine, however if I hold the pen at a higher angle then the issue goes away. It is almost as if the tipping has been ground for people more used to ballpoint pens. There is a little flex and you can extract a reasonable variation in line width, however I have noticed this does cause a slight misalignment in the tines. This does infer the tines may be out slightly due to memory in the metal, something that can occur as part of the manufacturing process. It can happen with any manufacturer so I am not blaming this pen, nor the owner.

There are no size markings on the nib, I would assume it is a medium, however it writes more like a European broad, which is a little surprising as this is a smaller nib.

The filling mechanism is standard international fit cartridge or converter. I believe it came with a couple of cartridges however the owner has always used the converter, which is a screw in unit. Whose I am not sure, for from the rear it looks like a Schmidt with Cartier banding on it, however the opening is different to what I’ve seen before, with a plastic or rubber inner component to keep it secure on the nib peg, plus the threading is lower down than on a Schmidt K6. Still it works, which is the key thing, and can be swapped out with a Schmidt replacement, though that might need to be a smooth sided K5, not the screw in K6 due to the position of the threads. Incidentally while Cartier do sell converters, these look to be just re-branded Schmidt K5 in a number of finishes.

As mentioned near the start, I do not know how much this pen was new. Being Cartier it probably was not cheap. Certainly search on line and you can find scalpers playing on the brand name as I found one going on eBay for $3800!!!. A more reasonably priced one from a trusted source can be found for just £249.99 at iZods.

Would I hunt down one of these pens for myself. No as it is not my style. It certainly feels well made and writes well, but I am not a fan of modern Montblanc nibs (too stiff for me) and visually it is not to my personal taste.

Would I recommend this pen to someone else. Well at the price iZods is selling the pen for, if it is your style and you are going to use it, then I do not see why not. The Diablo has character and has been created to fit the Cartier design language.

Pros:

• Fits the Cartier design language.
• 1920s looking pen to a modern size.
• Retro chic.

Neutral:

• Prices can be varied due to scalpers playing on the Cartier name.
• Will not be to everyone’s taste.
• Short section.

Cons:

• Sharp barrel step.
• Some initial skipping on glossier/smoother paper.

Writing Sample:

Comparison Photos:

On this occasion I have included my Montblanc 146 as well as the ubiquitous Lamy Al-Star/Safari. Note the nib and feed of the 146 have both changed in the 20 years between these pens, though the 146 has a size #6 nib, where as the Diablo is a #5.