Can someone explain the Faber-Castell Contura and Apollo lines?

If you mean these ones:

The difference is that Apollo has fully retractable/ sliding lead sleeve, while on the Contura it is fixed. There are versions with shiny chromed metal grip for both. They first appeared in 1983-84, search the forum for catalog posts. All of these have plastic clutch jaws and a very mushy click feel.

Alpha matic is older and of far better quality than these.

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