Today I am going to take a bit of a detour from my main focus of side knock mechanical pencils.
Here is a vintage Platinum "Z" MoMA Design Collection mechanical pencil. These amazing works of art are regarded as one of the most collectible mechanical pencils.
The Platinum "Z" was first released in 1980 by the Platinum Pen Company. Both the
mechanical pencil and ball point pen versions were added to the
collection of the Museum of Modern Art, under the category of
Architecture and Design. (Design credit: Mitsuo Maki, Hosowo Tomohiro, Kikukawa Katsuyoshi)
In
1981 the Platinum "Z" was officially launched and won the prize by New
York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Platinum teamed up with the famous
fashion brand "Courreges" (Andre Courreges of France) for the stationary
category and now resides in the permanent collection and can be visited
today.
The
clip is spring loaded and nicely sits into the barrel in a flushed
position. This allows the clip to be unnoticeable to the touch while
writing. To release the clip you simply slide the clip up and it extends
out allowing for easy pocket carry. It's a very interesting design!
There is a nice engraved, stylized "Z" on top and the company name
"Platinum" on the barrel.
Both
the pen and mechanical pencil versions feature a twist-action
telescoping tip. When the tip is retracted, the bottom of the pencil has
a
hollow barrel appearance. When the tip is exposed, the barrel extends
open and produces a gap within the body. This gap allows you to advance
the lead when you press down on the top of the pencil. It's a very
clever design!
There
are 4 color variations of the Platinum "Z". Silver, dark gray, fluted
silver, and, as seen here, blue-gray with golden trim.
The
production cost for the Platinum "Z" was very high and therefore was
overpriced for most buyers. They soon followed up with a simplified
version with plastic parts called the "Bee Line"
This
is a wonderful addition to any mechanical pencil collection. The
rarity of these mechanical pencils oftentimes brings the prices up on
the resale market. Keep an eye on the market and try to grab one of
these at a good price.
2 comments
The similarity of the Bee Line is obvious, but I didn't know that it was a direct "answer" of Platinum to the Z.
ReplyDeleteI believe there are more versions as you listed. There are the 3000JPY version as you have (grey, red, violet, pink, brown; all gold clip&tip), the 5000JPY version (black, grey; both silver clip & tip) and the luxury versions (silver fluted 8k; silver-fluted with black-striped silver clip10k, silver-fluted with red-striped gold clip 15k, gold-fluted 20k, ?)
The least rare version is the 5k grey version, I would say.
Thanks for the comment and clarity on the additional versions. I will not attempt owning them all :)
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