Midori… perhaps better known today for its hipster-friendly line of leather-bound Traveller’s notebooks and pretty expensive bullet-style brass pencil, ballpoint and fountain pens. Throughout my collecting journey I have come across occasional gems like their ‘CL’ line of stationery… like a Uniqlo counterpoint to the earthy blandness of MUJI’s stationery (at least for the better part of the 2000s). They even had a Pentel Gomdale crossover in frosted clear yellow, which I managed to snag, and probably came in even more colors.
This one? This is the classiest Midori I have ever laid eyes on; behold the ‘Coffee break’ sharp! To be sure, the asking price was far from sane. But smitten as I was, I simply couldn’t find any other listing or blog entry for it, and so I paid up.
The charms of the ‘Coffee break’ are plentiful: the all metal pinstripe grooved body felt solid and tactile in my hand, and the clip! The CLIP!! It not only sported the brand and product name, it even had a stylized ‘C |8’ initial engraved. How cool? Too cool 
However, this is also a cautionary tale for anyone seeking vintage thrills—my ‘Coffee break’ arrived immaculately packed, only for its resin clutch to fail immediately on my first press.
Life’s too short to curse the seller for any real or imaginary shenanigans. Once you’ve tasted ‘technological arthritis’ a couple of times you either roll with it, or you open the toolbox 
I selected a spare Pilot H325 (overseas S3), which was plentiful at local shops, and extracted its proven metal clutch for a transplant. I had to cut off a portion of the original plastic clutch housing to make way for the taller S3 unit but was careful to ensure there were enough screw threads leftover to hold on to the cone securely.
Success! Now it’s time for a real coffee break! 
