REVIEW: PLATINUM CURIDAS FOUNTAIN PEN

To say that the Platinum Curidas had a bit of a false start would be the understatement of the century. Platinum's "Capless-killer" was extremely hyped when it was first announced in early 2020. But Covid hit hard, and the launch of the Curidas suffered -like almost every other product back then-  from supply issues. 

The initial hype had already slightly dissipated by the time the Curidas actually hit the market.. But then came reports of feeds cracking randomly, and despite Platinum fixing the issue rather swiftly, that totally killed the momentum for the Curidas. Admittedly, even I didn't really give the Curidas much thought... that is, until today! In an effort of Platinum's EU marketing team to finally give this pen the attention it deserves, a Curidas found its way onto my desk for review. Call it a second 'launch', if you will. 

In all fairness, the Curidas absolutely deserves more attention. It may not be a perfect pen, but IMHO neither are similar pens like the Pilot Capless or Lamy Dialog 3, and at least Platinum has both competitors firmly beat in terms of pricing. 

The design of the Curidas is an interesting one. There's something positively futuristic about it, a bit space-age almost, executed in a very Japanese way. Unfortunately, Japanese pen brands don't shy away from using injection-molded plastics (sometimes on pens many times the price of the Curidas!), so that's also the material of choice we see here. The transparent plastic doesn't give a very premium feeling to the Curidas. Though what it can do is provide a unique insight into the mechanism. I went for the clear finish to get the most out of the demonstrator look, but the other color finishes offer a similar translucency to gaze at the pen's innards.

L to R: Gravitas Sentry, Pilot Capless LS, Pilot Capless, Platinum Curidas, Platinum #3776, Lamy 2000, Lamy Safari

Uncommon for most Japanese pens in this price range, the Curidas is a very large pen. Measuring 15.3cm (6.01") when closed, it towers out above pens I'd gladly call oversized (such as the Gravitas Sentry). With the nib extended, the story changes a bit; the Curidas is now 14.1cm (5.53") long, the same length as a Pilot Capless. 

With a diameter of 13.6mm (0.54") for most of its length, the Curidas is an incredibly bulky and massive pen. Especially for the Japanese market, it's quite off-brand to make such a large pen. The Curidas has a similar bulkiness to the Lamy Dialog 3 (which I forgot to include in the above size comparisons!), but differs strongly from the all-metal Lamy in terms of weight. The mostly plastic construction has the merit of keeping this bulky pen fairly lightweight, at just 24 grams. 

If you're used to wider pens, the Curidas can be a comfortable fit for you. For once, clip placement - a classic problem with retractable fountain pens - isn't an issue with the Curidas. The wide diameter of the barrel keeps your grip mostly out of the way of the clip. My fingers still rest against it, but it's not too noticeable. Just in case you do find it bothersome, Platinum did make the clip removable (they even include a tool to disassemble it). 

In terms of comfort, the biggest gripe for me is this weird protrusion on the underside of the pen (which is necessary to make room for the internal mechanism to actuate). You might be able to avoid it if your grip sits quite far back, but there's a very real chance that your middle finger will bump into it from time to time. Personally, I find it incredibly distracting for my grip. At the very least, I'm convinced they could've made it a bit more rounded off and comfortable. 

All in all, the Curidas is a comfortable enough pen for short to mid-length writing sessions, and it's a pen that's easy to reach for in those scenarios. Writing a full-length essay with it, though (like the draft for this review)... my hand did get cramped a bit.

Quite a few parts! You can also disassemble the front section as well!

The Curidas is built around a rather complicated and large mechanism, so it's not very hard to see why Platinum had to make this pen so big to accommodate its innards. The mechanism is mostly metal, but some parts are made of plastic. I'd feel more reassured about longevity if it was entirely metal, though so far I've seen no signs of wear that would give reason for concern. Pretty much the entire thing can be disassembled quite easily (the same cannot be said for the Capless nor Dialog 3), which is very practical for cleaning.

The knock is very long, and has to be pressed all the way down to deploy the nib. That long travel is needed to slide the entire nib unit and its housing (let's call it the 'cocoon') forward. It has a rather satisfying click in which you feel both internal springs engage, and a pleasing and loud 'snap' at the end. The knock does rattle a bit when the nib is extended, though.

The sealing mechanism for the nib (a plastic and rubber tube with a small trap door) seems to do its job perfectly, even after quite a few weeks of deliberately letting it sit untouched. No signs of drying out yet. I can see a potential issue where, over time, lint and debris could work their way in between the trap door and the soft rubber seal around the cocoon, which could prevent the door from sealing properly. But since the entire mechanism can be disassembled for cleaning, this would be an easy fix.

Onto the writing end then: The steel F nib (similar in design to other steel Platinum nibs, only smaller of course) required a slight nudge to fix a minor misalignment that was causing some scratchiness. But after that, it has been smooth sailing, really. The nib still has a bit of pleasant feedback, but that's not uncommon for a platinum nib. It feels nice using a true Japanese fine nib again - it just has that certain quality and balance to it that only Japanese nib manufacturers get right. It lays down a very fine line in a balanced ink flow.  The nib has an ever-so-slight amount of bounce to it, which cushions the writing experience quite nicely. 

At 85€ (Currently on sale for 75€ at Penworld!), the Platinum Curidas doesn't cannibalize on Pilot Capless or Lamy Dialog 3 territory. Instead, it sits comfortably in that sub-100€ price range where it becomes increasingly harder and harder to find exciting pens. So it certainly has its value and uniqueness going for it as selling points. 

The Curidas has the potential to become an excellent mid-range clicky fountain pen. But this is a first iteration of a very complex and ambitious pen, and there are some things that can still be optimized. Especially simplifying the mechanism and getting rid of that 'bump' on the underside of the pen would be a welcome change. Trying to make the entire pen a touch smaller also probably wouldn't hurt. Let's hope that Platinum treats it properly and continues to further improve and hone the Curidas in a future version 2.0!

Note: This product was provided by Penworld, free of charge, so I could write this review. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review. The opinions shared in this review are completely my own! This post does not contain affiliate links.

REVIEW: PLATINUM PREFOUNTE FOUNTAIN PEN

Interestingly, the Platinum Prefounte didn't quite make the splash I thought it would. There was some talk about it before launch, but that seems to have died down more or less now that the pen is actually available. It probably also suffered a bit from the upcoming - though at this point massively delayed - Curidas retractable fountain pen being announced not too long after the Prefounte hit the market, because let's face it, we all have the attention span of a goldfish these days, happily focusing on one novelty for at least a full five seconds before the next 'new' product arrives... ah the joys of the internet age, am I right? 

Anyway, let's focus on the pen before I run the risk of sounding like an old man (Imagine how grumpy and bitter I'll be in 50 years, oh boy!). The simple fact is: the Prefounte deserves more attention!

Long story short: the 10$ Prefounte manages to provide such a smooth writing experience that it's hard not to forgive it's unapologetically plastic-fantastic construction. No, it doesn't quite manage to break free from it's ultra-affordable (disposable?) sibling - the Platinum Preppy - leading to the inevitable comparison between these two pens. But yes, the Prefounte does manage to win said comparison, despite offering just a few aesthetic improvements for twice the price of the Preppy.

I've never been one for short stories though, so here's the long version: As stupid as it may sound, everything stands or falls with the Prefounte's metal clip. It's a far departure from the flimsy plastic clip on the Preppy. As far as pocket clips go... well, they both do the job, but the Prefounte is both less bulky and much sturdier and simply looks more premium, too. It immediately transforms the 'disposable' (well technically it's refillable, but it's not like it doesn't look disposable) preppy into a simple but smart-looking pen.

The lack of flashy, disposable pen-like printing and graphics on the barrel and cap also helps with the smart looks of the Prefounte. Although to be fair, the Preppy already has a more 'premium' version in translucent colors that has fairly minimal branding to begin with. Still, even the best-looking Preppy has a two-tone finish doesn't look quite as clean and elegant as the monotone color scheme of the Prefounte.

The plastic that both pens are made out of is identical though. And, well... Let's just say 'premium' has never been the name of the game for the all-injection-molded plastic Preppy, where the cap has a reputation for cracking over time (not surprising, given how firm the snap cap mechanism is, combined with fairly thin plastic walls!). That being said, I've been carrying the Prefounte (gently - I might add) around for the past 5 or 6 months, and it still looks new, so thus far these ten dollars have served their purpose quite well. I also quite like how the inside of the barrel is faceted, to create a nice, which gives a nice effect when the light hits it.

L to R: Pelikan M805, Pilot 78G, Platinum Prefounte, FPR Himalaya, Lamy 2000, Lamy Safari

The Prefounte measures 13.8 cm (5.4") capped and 12.2 cm (4.8") uncapped. That's not huge, but the tiny nib takes up only a small portion of the total length, freeing up space for a longer section (with a comfortable 1 cm/ 0.4" diameter). This also means that you can grip the pen quite close towards the front, so that this relatively short pen is still long enough to be used unposted. Posting is possible though, and it's of course very comfortable because the total weight of the entire pen is just 11 grams.

There's a tiny step between section and barrel, but overall the Prefounte scores quite good marks for comfort. It's not a large pen, but the diameter is just right and it's long enough to hold comfortably, So I can't really complain. Ok, maybe I'd prefer a bit more weight, but hey, that's what you get with an all-plastic pen.

The bread and butter of the Prefounte (and many of Platinum's pens) is its excellent writing experience. And that starts of course with Platinum's unique slip-and-seal inner cap that prevents the nib from drying out. Well, I say unique, but these days there are actually a few brands that use a spring-loaded inner cap (such as Wancher, and Esterbrook). Unlike the competition, however, Platinum has theirs down to an exact science: the spring is almost not noticeable when you close the pen, requiring almost no force to cap the pen. It's a 10$ pen (even the 5$ Preppy, for that matter), and it just never dries out! Frankly, there are pens that literally cost 100 times more that can't keep the nib from drying out after just a few days!

Of course, a nib that doesn't dry out wouldn't be of much use if it's a crappy nib to begin with. And again, the Preppy and Prefounte seem to punch far above their weight! In true Platinum fashion, ink flow is a little more on the dry side of balanced, without feeling like it's starved of ink. The simple steel nibs are incredibly smooth though. Being pretty much the most basic of basic nibs you can get, this is very impressive stuff! I'm using the 0.3mm nib, which is equivalent to a fine (the Preppy also comes in EF and M, the Prefounte only comes in F or M, although you could technically just swap in the entire section from a Preppy) and I'd be hard-pressed to tell a difference between this or Platinum's gold nib on the #3776.

The Platinum Prefounte (available at La Couronne Du Comte) IS effectively an upgraded Preppy. But even though it's just a minor aesthetic improvement, I'd pick the Prefounte every day of the week.

For a first dip toe into the fountain pen world, the 11€/ 10$ Prefounte is an excellent way to start off. Although it's hard to ignore that the Preppy offers an identical writing experience for less than 5$, the Prefounte at least manages to look a bit smarter than your average disposable pen (excellent for in the office!), and its' 10$ price point still undercuts a lot of other 'budget' fountain pens (e.g. Pilot Metropolitan, Lamy Safari, Platinum's own Plaisir, or even the equally plasticky Pilot Kakuno). Add to that the spot-o writing experience you get, and I think there are worse ways to spend ten bucks!

NOTE: This product was provided by IDC, the BeNeLux distributor of Platinum, so I could write this review. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared in this review are completely my own! This post does not contain affiliate links.