Belated New Pen Day: First Impressions for the Waterman Carène Gunmetal
I received the Waterman Carène gunmetal in the mail yesterday, but had an eventful day so I didn’t have a chance to post first impressions until today (and now “today” is already tomorrow now that it’s after midnight, #NightOwl).
I came across the sale listing for this on r/Pen_Swap back in December. I’ve been wanting a Carène for a while, but was thinking about getting one in Royal Violet since it’s more rare, and it’s purple. 😅 I didn’t know the gunmetal version existed until I saw the listing and looked it up. I was blown away by the design and by the sale price, since old listings for the pen were around twice the asking price, or a bit more. I really couldn’t pass the opportunity by!
I watched a YT review video and became even more enamored. The model in the video had a stub nib, and the way the reviewer talked about it made me think that maybe the gunmetal version came standard with a stub nib, but, alas, mine came with a regular medium (?) nib. I have a store listing for a stub nib unit bookmarked for a future upgrade.
(For all pictures below, you can tap/click to see a larger version.)
I mean, look at this design. It’s so striking. I’m actually not even sure I’d want to pick up another Carène because the others would be kind of “boring” compared to this one. I know there’s a blue one with a silver cap and a wave pattern, but… 🤷♀️
I was surprised by the Carène’s size. I was under the impression that it was the size of a Pilot E95s, but it’s more of a regular pen size, I found out, which is fine with me.
Above, the Carène is next to a Pilot E95s and a couple older Pilot Elites. My Pilot “long short” pens are the only ones I have with inlaid nibs. That design element alone is unique among many fountain pens already. My only gripe with them is that I don’t know how to disassemble these, if they can be, to fully clean out the nibs and feeds, such as they are.
The Pen Swap listing said that the nib is a medium, but when I compared it to my other mediums, it definitely looks like a finer line.
I just now looked up where to find the nib size and realized the underside of the section/nib unit says “F”, so it makes sense that it would appear finer than my mediums. 😆 This is no problem, as I’ve learned to like finer nibs in recent months. It writes quite smoothly and reasonable wetness while still showing off shading. I initially inked the pen with Troublemaker Milky Ocean to give it an easy start, but I’ll try a shimmer next, probably. My Pilot pens have no problem with shimmers, so I hope the same of the Waterman.
Whoops, the Carène has a fine nib, not a medium.
Some more quick notes, as I’ve only had it a day and haven’t written that much with it yet:
The metal body was quite cold when I first took it out of the box. 🥶
I like that the section isn’t metal. If a metal section doesn’t have some kind of texture, it may be slippery. It also offers a nice contrast to the nib, and reminds me of the Pilot Elite design.
The asymmetrical end is another nice design detail. I don’t mind that it does not line up with the nib.
The gunmetal color is subtle. I like the bright silver clip, cap band, and end details to show the contrast.
Imagine if the triangle/diamond pattern on the body had tiny inset diamond-like jewels at the vertices…! It’d appear even more like jewelry.
Even though the pen is all metal, except for the section, it’s not that heavy. It has just enough heft to feel like it’s more premium without making it fatiguing to use.
The converter is alright. I tried to get a full fill inking the normal way, but I’ll likely do a syringe fill from now on.
Not surprisingly, the writing experience is similar to my Pilot Elites/E95s.
I really want the stub nib!
Well, that’s all for now. I’ll definitely post an update after I’ve written with the Carène more. I’m so happy to have my first Waterman pen! What a nice one to begin the year with.
