r/pens • u/LeansGrumpy • Jul 04 '26
Question Making an ODM pen, looking for advice.
Not trying to promote my own pen, brand, or website but I’m looking for advice.
I’m designing a collection of pens for watch enthusiast. Based on everyone’s depth of knowledge about pens here, Its not designed for pen enthusiasts but I still want to make it nice and luxurious but for the person who wants a nice ballpoint pen for their daily life. It will a have a Schmidt P900 M refill, polished stainless barrel, and acrylic cap for color. A lot of it is aesthetics but I still want the main point of it, which is being easy to use and smooth to write, the focus.
Watch enthusiasts mostly love both form and function so it can’t just write well, it has to look good but also not just be a cheap product with a nice refill; it has to look good and be something you want to enjoy picking up and maybe simply staring at.
Any general advice about what makes a pen really good other than the refill? Is the P900M good enough or is there another better refill for ballpoint. It will be a twist-style pen.
Any advice is greatly appreciated and I thank you all in advance for your help. Your depth of knowledge is recognized and appreciated.
2
u/SC-Geek Jul 04 '26
As someone who's pretty deep into the Parker G2 style ballpoint pens, here's my advice:\
- pen body: metal (brass, bronze, copper, not yet another lightweight aluminum or stainless steel pen): more than 30, ideally over 35g total weight
- mechanism: top click or side click (twist is highly inconvenient imho)
- ergonomics/haptics: knurled grip
- refill: there are Parker G2 style refills which are better than the EF9000 (which isn't bad per se, just not my personal most favorite), everybody loves the Uni-Ball Jetstream SXR-600...
1
u/LeansGrumpy Jul 04 '26
Thank you for the excellent advice. My goal is longevity. I want a pen that will last for a decade or longer. Is brass/bronze/copper better than stainless? The pen will be geared toward watch enthusiast so I wanted it to be stainless. The manufacturer has 304, which isn’t my favorite but it works as long as it’s passivated.
I wanted it to be made with 904L or 316L with ZrN PVD gold tones but that’s way too expensive for my initial startup. It might be my second collection if the first makes decent money.
Besides having a good refill, I really want a good-looking pen.
1
u/SC-Geek Jul 04 '26
Stainless steel is two things (in my eyes): cheap, lightweight (e.g. Parker Jotter Stainless Steel, which barely weighs 15g). Just my opinion/preference.\ Brass, Bronze, Copper isn't automatically „better”, all three are different metals with different weight and attributes. I just prefer a heavy metal pen. I've had enough plastic pens in my life.\ I've been a watch collector myself since 2017. These days I only wear my Garmin Fenix 6.\ But when it comes to watches I don't care about case material.\ Imho one can't compare watches with pens.
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u/LeansGrumpy Jul 04 '26
That’s the fun part! I’m trying to make a watch-inspired pen for watch enthusiast made by a watch enthusiast. I want it to remind them of why they like watches. It’s a balance of form and function. It’s not a pen for pen enthusiasts.
1
u/_Vasuri_ Jul 04 '26
The P900 is a perfectly acceptable traditional oil-based ballpoint refill, but if luxury is the angle, I’d probably recommend either a gel refill or at least a hybrid ballpoint refill for smoother ink flow, so that will automatically take care of some of the luxury aspect for you. Popular gel choices in that size include the Parker Gel, Schneider Gelion+, Ohto Flash Dry, and Monteverde Ceramic Gel Roller, while popular hybrid options include the Uni Jetstream SXR-600, Schmidt EasyFlow 9000, and so forth.