I believe Rotring 500 was released somewhere in the world in 1985, so it is 39 years old now.
When was Staedtler 925 25 released?
Zebra Sharbo?
Zebra M-301?
Pentel Smash?
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The Pentel Smash (0.5, 0.7 & 0.9) came out in 1986.
The Pentel Smash (0.3) came out in 1988.
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925 25 came out in 1990. (34 years)
Sharbo from 1977 according to official catalog. (47 years)
M301 since 1983. (41 years)
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@pearsonified Are there any executive models you can think of that had a very long run or are still in production?
Another note: Pilot seems to not have very long runs compared to Pentel.
YOL Diplomat began 1934. Quite a run.
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The S55 form factor is certainly the archetype for executive pencils, and I donāt think any other manufacturers produced comparable pieces for anything close to that length of time.
Pilot killed off a ton of pencils in the 90s and early 00s.
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Yes 1934 is quite the run. This post has inspired to get out my Diplomat and Iām using it at the moment. Mine is 1948 so not quite as old as the originals, but it is in excellent condition, almost āas newā.
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Do we already have a conclusion?
P20x for MP?
For lead holders i have doubts about the fixpencilās continuity ā¦ is it really the same model today as in 1929?
YoL has same lead size, mechanism and design right from the start (afaik).
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Hmm. Perhaps you are right. Model name and model number make a difference in these things, just as with cars. The Fixpencil may have been the longest model name, but the original Fixpencil may be similiar to or different from a Fixpencil 22 or a Fixpencil 77. BMW M3 has been around for a long time, but āe30ā is a lot more helpful designation when discussing production runs, engines, and body styles.
So maybe P20X is the thin lead winner from 1970, YoL Diplomat is the medium lead winner from 1934, and FC TK 9400 is 2mm winner from 1948.
Fixpencil (1929) and Criterium (1939) get 2mm holder honorable mentions for model name continuity.
Edit: Lamy 2000 MP hails from 1970, so it is in a dead heat with P20X for the thin lead title until one drops out.
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Edit 2: Looks like Parker Duofold was introduced in 1921 and the last Duofold pencil was discontinued 2012. It was not in continuous production over that period and it had design revisions and was offered with various sub-model names. Still, it is worth noting that it was on offer from Parker for roughly 91 years.
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Subreddit recently featured this Yard-O-Led Diplomat video. The fabrication mode is impressively old-fashioned.
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The Lamy 2000 dates to 1966 and is noticeably unchanged in design, however the MP feels like a bastard stepchild in the line so Iād imagine the MP doesnāt date back to the beginning of the 2000 line, though I donāt know when it was introduced.
I have very old CdA Fixpencils, which are not MP but drop clutch leadholders. I think that design goes back more than 100 years, but they constantly mess with it. I love the Fixpencil and have at least 30, favorites are longer old models: 77 some with fish printed on the faceted face, some without. Many have metal caps. The newer 22 is a lot shorter and has a plastic cap. So itās not a continuous production.
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Welcome to the community @alpha-matic , and thanks for sharing.
By the way: do you happen to have a short, stubby Fixpencil 23 by any chance? They seem to be quite hard to find, at least compared to the 22 version, and all the other versions.
I have some Fixpencils myself, and while I love their matte-finish variants, the āsanded-gripā versions are way less close to my heart, as I find it vaguely uncomfortable to handle that texture under my fingertips. Great design, and amazing tradeoff between form, weight, and style, though. 
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Hey, yea, nice to meetcha @Leonov
To answer your q, the Fixpencil seems to be 125mm long (body) and length hasnāt been a factor since the Fixpencil 77. I wrote you a different answer, but then I checked and realized there isnāt as much length variation as Iād thought. I donāt think I have anything that says Fixpencil 23, but theyās so many out there, I bet thereās lots I donāt have. The short answer is that for some time now, all the Fixpencils I have, have been one length: +/- 125mm metal body (excludes cap and clutch). The older Fixpencil 77 was longer: +/- 145mm body, but I havenāt seen any of those for sale, retail, in decades. There are many other variations, but length hasnāt been a factor since the Fixpencil 77 left the market? If anyone knows where to find 77s, drop me a DM! Iām not an expert, I see people who manage to track down marketing material and really determine facts. Iām not that person. I have 35, maybe 40 variants of The Fixpencil, and Iāve observed a few things:
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NAME. Some models simply say Fixpencil, Fixpencil 2, Fixpencil 22, Fixpencil 3, Fixpencil 33 and finally Fixpencil 77. I am basing NAME from whatās printed on the body, I donāt have a catalogue or know official information.
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CAP. (the most significant variation IMO) is metal vs. plastic cap. Older models have a beautiful metal cap. Some recent special editions picked up on this old detail (see the orange and purple body). The current plastic offerings are fine, but metal is so much nicer.
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FINISH. They do a lot of special editions, see attached pix. Theyāre mostly graphic. There are exceptions to that. . . the Alfredo Haberli editions have a unique approach to finish, really nice IMO.
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SPECIAL EDITIONS. Like many other classic flagship models (Lamy 2000 for example) they do many special editions in order to keep the brand current. The recent Alfredo Haberli editions are notable because they went beyond graphic variations: metal caps, like the old Fixpencil 22ās and also cuts in the grip areaā¦ copy seen online suggests itās from their archive, not sure if they mean Fixpencil or more broad? I donāt have any other Fixpencils that have that feature. Criterium pencils are famous for this? Someone on reddit dates those (Criterium, French pencil brand) to 1939. Alas. . ā¦
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LEAD DIAMETER. I have 2mm and 3mm models. I had thought the 3mm models had a wider body, but after putting a micrometer on a bunch of them, itās clear that the 3mm bodies arenāt necessarily larger than the more common 2mm variants.
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BODY SIZE. It doesnāt seem that any of the versions I own experiment with a different metal stock size. I did observe a good bit of variation: using a micrometer, I clamped down on a flat orientation of the hexagonal progile and twisted the pencil one increment forward so that the high points of the hexagonal profile spread the calipers. 8.4mm to 9.15mm is what I saw, but it seems like the nearly-mm difference isnāt intentional: sometimes it might be the finish, sometimes it might be small changes in production over the years that result in drift? I donāt know.
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TEXTURE. There is a range of finishes on different models. At its core, the current offerings are subtly more textured on the bottom half in a really subtle manner, while the top half is more glossy. Itās a subtle and useful detail, making the grip area feel more tactile while having the upper half receive the clip and printing?
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CLIP. Looking over the 20 pencils pictured, 18 of them have clips. I honestly canāt say that the two models missing clips are supposed to be that way? I donāt know. I donāt see any damage from removing a clip. Anyway, it seems that at its core, the Fixepncil is a pencil with a permanent clip that cannot be removed. I like this. The Fixpencil is primarily a drafting leadholder, I love to use it on a drawing board, therefore I appreciate the clip because it makes it that much more stable on an inclined drawing board. It looks sharp in a front pocket as well.
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TEXT. Sometimes the text is under the clip (more recnt?) sometimes itās not. I like when itās under the clip, feels subtle and makes a fender out of the clip, protecting the print. They all made reference to being made in Switzerland. FABRICATION SUISSE, SWISS MADE (in a box), SWISS MADE (written out, long, on the body.
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FISH. LOL, I have no idea. Why do some early Fixpencil 77 models have fish printed on the body, between CARAN DāACHE and FIXPENCIL 77. If you have ideas, Iād love to hear them. Three simple fish outlines. See pix.
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WEIGHT. The Fixpencil is a relatively light leadholder. Itās somewhat modest material thickness and aluminum body material make it notably lighter than many other metal leadholders. Iāve come to appreciate the lightness of the leadholder, Iād regard it as one of my favorite of its qualities and a big part of why itās such a joy to work with.
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SIZE / POINTING. I have noticed that the pencil doesnāt fit many of the standard rotary leadpointers available today. For example, my favorite: the DUX Gedess Sharpener, doesnāt quite fit the Fixpencil. This is a major drawback, as this excludes the larger, higher quality desk pointers. Therefore, I guess my favorite pointer is a piece of sandpaper or the UNI DPS6001P, that wonderful little maroon pointer that only inserts the lead, not the slightly oversized pencil body. That tends to be the two pointers I use with the Fixpencil. Iād consider this to be the only downside to the pencil Iāve noticed: the lack of compatibility with many leadholders is a drawback.
Finally: you might wonder why I have chosen to buy more of these pencils than I āneedā or however you want to describe ācollectorā. Iām an architect and I like to draw, freehand and drafting, whenever I can and over the years I came to love the Fixpencil the very most of all the leadholders. Iāve always liked pencils, and over the years Iād try different pencils and I came to really appreciate the way the Fixpencil feels and the way it disappears when I draw. I use most of the versions I own, as much as I can. Freehand sketching, drafting. Freehand, I really like to use a soft lead: like 8B, at some point just stop putting a point on it and just use it as a greasy crayon. Really great like that. Just as much fun to load up 4H, 2H, HB, 2B and 4B into five of them and use them for drafting. They are my favorite leadholder to draft with. The only reason I keep around other leadholders is so that I can use the DUX Gedess pointer sometimes. Finally, Iād point out that the overall design is subtle and solid. The materials and connections are of excellent build quality, the design is undertated and offers a real alternative to a bunch of heavier, more aggressively knurled pencils that I used to think I liked, until one day I realized they were distracting. The weight was unbalanced and prove to fall or dip, the overly machined knurled grip section was impressive from a tatical point of view, but really adds an unnecessary weight in exchange for all this traction that Iāve never felt I needed. Iāve never experienced a pencil of any sort āslipā in my fingers, so I donāt value an aggressive grip. Anyway, other things like the text under the clip, the understated printing on some models, it gave me a feeling I really appreciate thatās simple and a joy to use.
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Thank you for telling some of your collecting story. I am a fan of Fixpencils as well. Still have not found any fish. A Fixpencil 75 with 0.5mm lead slipped through my fingers last year on ebay. First one I have seen in the wild in 4 years looking.
Impressive collection, and impressive re-collection of all your vast knowledge on the subject; I loved reading all the details!
If only Fixpencil came in a round version: I found a pen shaped like that once, on Ebay, but according to my wallet it was not the right moment to buy, and then i lost track of the piece. I would have loved to handle a round leadholder with that level of excellence, plus the highest level of no-nonsenseness Iāve ever encountered in the world of clutch pencils.
I was actually surprised the Gedess does not accommodate well a Fixpencil, given the intrinsic flexibility of its opening; Iāll check on mine to see what goes wrong (probably, the hexagonal barrel does not help); fortunately for us, there are items like the Uni pointer.
The super-short Fixpencil 23 Iām chasing right now is somewhat of a unicorn: Iāve seen people finding it (e.g. here), but it seems next to impossible to get ā Iād happily take any colour combination, and trade it for some of my special items ā so Iām suffering here, missing one (of many) pencils in my heart and collection.
PS: do you happen to look as well for thin-lead mechanical pencils, or just leadholders?
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Yea that Fixpencil 23 is cool, never had one in hand before. Yes, i also have lots of mechanical pencils. I probably have the most of mechanical pencils, I like .9 the most. I have some fountain pens but not a ton and I also like to use wood pencils.
Also, I have a ā2403 CRITERIUMā thatās just over 100mm, they seem to have made a lot more variety than CdA Fixpencil line. Theyāre very good looking pencils, mostly raw or anodized aluminum. French vs. Swiss. . .
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Cool tiny Criterium! I know a guy with a Vinted page whoās all over Criteriums, and was looking frantically for a very specific type of short Criterium ā but I have to find the reference page to retrieve the exact product codes.
By the way, if you like hexagonal barrels in anodised aluminum for leadholders, allow me to wholeheartedly recommend the āAutomat Krakowā: Polish model, quite light construction, gentle brass clutch, shallow engraving with a nice cursive hand, and slim profile. A very nice piece, just without the grooves in the grip area the Criterium is famous for.
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A nice Automat Krakow has been on eBay for some time. I have the shorter 90mm model. So simple and homely, but good quality.