I purchased this item from a Japanese auction. The seller listed it as Pilot, and the case is labeled “Pilot” as well. However, the mechanical pencil inside only has “Nomura” written on it, with no mention of Pilot.
I couldn’t find any information about a brand called Nomura. Does anyone happen to know anything about it?
I suspect it is a corporate gift / promotional item - from Wikipedia - Nomura Holdings, Inc. is a Japanese financial holding company and a principal member of the Nomura Group, which is Japan’s largest investment bank and brokerage group.
Thanks for your response.
As far as I know, promotional items usually include the manufacturer’s name as well, but this one doesn’t have any other engraving.
Could it be that NOMURA commissioned this as a custom order from Pilot, which is why there is no Pilot branding?
It’s quite puzzling.
A lot of brands had different models in their corporate gift range to their retail range, and a lot of them were unbranded.
Oh.I didn’t know that.
I thought even corporate versions would always have the brand name on them.
Sometimes even the retail versions are unbranded. Rotring went through a period where many of their items were not branded, i.e. they sold them in Rotring packaging but the pens/pencils themselves were completely unbranded. Part of the Sanford / Newell brands reorganisation, etc. I recall one major retailer telling me that the sales rep had told them “all Rotring products are discontinued”. I’ve also seen Faber-Castell unbranded items in SE Asia which FC confirmed are genuine, they just allow their local businesses to source “price competitive options” and package as FC, etc.
