Longest production runs

General Mechanical Pencil Discussion
1

Which MPs and lead holders had or continue to have the longest production runs?

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I have no idea 
 i just wanted to throw in some candidates:

  • production start 1948 for FC TK 9400
  • Production start 1934 for YOL Diplomat
  • kaweco Sport 1935, but no continuous production

I guess things are easier for MP?

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3

I think YOL Diplomat will be hard to beat. Maybe Staedtler have a contender?
If they hadn’t recently finally folded, Autopoint would probably have had some model challenging for a place somewhere on the list, although not continuous and with major redesigns of the same model along the way.
Parker Duofold, although again far from continuous and major redesigns, etc.

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Faber-Castell TK 9500: 1950–2023, i. e. 73 years

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The obvious candidate is Pentel P200? since 1965 makes it 59 years


KIN 5611 also started in the 60s and is still available mostly unchanged

Does the Criterium count even though it has devolved into a lowly plastic BIC? 1939 makes it 85 years

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Criterium reminded me of Cd’A Fixpencil. Since 1929 makes 95 years.

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Which model was released in 39?

Edit: Nm. Criterium was the name of the model. More specific model numbers came later. Similar situation with Fixpencil.

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The Criterium was indeed inspired on the Fixpencil, but not sure we should treat it as the same pencil in terms of production. In any case, the first Criteriums were produced before WW2 so they’re probably in 2nd place in terms of longevity.

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Oh, I wasn’t clear enough. For some reason I was thinking Criterium was the brand before remembering it was the model name. I mean the Criterium by Gilbert&Blanzy-Poure was the original model name given to their pencil just as Fixpencil was the original model name for a pencil designed by Cd’A.

Looking deeper, I found the first model number of the first Criterium was 2301. https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanicalpencils/s/CiGtBMwz3H

Not sure if the first Fixpencil had a number.

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10

The P200 came out in 1970, so it is 54 years old.

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11

How about Kerry?

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12

1971

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The Pentel P200 series came out in 1970.
The Pentel P1035 Kerry came out in 1971.
The Pentel PG5 came out in 1972.

As far as I know, these are the oldest Pentel models still in production.

Edit: removed S55 from list

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Not sure if the S55 / Classic Deluxe is still being made
 would be ecstatic if true!

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I have some contradicting notes regarding the names of the companies making the Criterium:

GILBERT PENCIL CO. (1939 – 1945)
GILBERT & BLANZY-POURE (1945 – 1960)
BLANZY-CONTÉ-GILBERT (1960 – 1980)
CONTÉ (Under BIC, 1980 – 1998)
BIC (1999 – Present)

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Yeah, I thought it was discontinued. There was a lot of excess inventory that got sold off a few years back, on eBay.

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Speaking of the Fixpencil: A noteworthy detail about it in passing (also because we are talking about history). Initially, Caran d’Ache was unable to manufacture the Fixpencil itself due to a lack of suitable machine tools and therefore called in the nearby watch industry until the mid-1930s. An advert from this period advertised the leadholder as ‘a precision instrument of our Swiss watch industry’.

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18

Looking back at my notes, I show that it was discontinued in the mid-2010’s.

My Bad.

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19

They were originally different factories (and made different pencils, although they all look alike) and eventually merged with each other with BIC finally acquiring ContĂ© who had acquired the others and preserving “ContĂ© Ă  Paris” as a more or less high-end line of art products. ContĂ© was famous for their drawing “blocks”, very refined carbon sticks that are really good: not as brittle as carbon sticks (usually produced from a vegetable source like willow trees) and not as hard and unforgiven as “fusain” (mineral carbon). There are some similar products in England (Wollfs and Derwent) and the States (General’s and Primo carbon pencils) and in Germany (Faber-Castell with their nice PITT oil base pencils and Polychromos Pastels), but “ContĂ©s” drawing sticks are really special.

I say “more or less high-end” because presently there are very specific brands making terrific products for the visual arts that are competing directly with big/old names of the industry via online stores.

For example, “Michael Harding” (and I could name a few more from France, Australia, USA, etc) produces high quality oil paints and watercolours that are competing directly with Rembrandt (oil paints) or Schmincke (watercolours, oils, etc). In fact you could say that MH targets professionals with top quality products in speciality shops while many traditional businesses like “Windsor&Newton” and “Amsterdam” have more control over big surfaces and general commerce with what are branded “artist” products. An “artist” line is engineered to make all paints/pigments the same price and equalised in terms of drying times and finishings but professional paints in the same line of products have different mixes (of pigment and binder), very different drying times and surface quality that is usually compensated with colour mixes, it’s not there out-of-the-box. For exemple 200ml of Titanium White may cost €25 but 200ml of Cadmium Red or Cobalt Blue can cost €90 or more. In a mid-range line all the 200ml tubes have the same price and are chemically equalised. They are also dubbed “Academy” vs “Studio”, etc. Its actually complicated keeping track of what they are but the price generally tells you right away :wink:

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This is rather simplified but it gives you the picture

(in French)