What's the deal with KIN and Rotring?

Discussion by Brand rOtring
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Rotring specialists, I have a burning question deep inside me:
Come on, beyond the obvious example of rapidomatic x vintage rotring 500, in a 1990 Rotring 600 ad, “KOH-I-NOOR” appears under a RR600 FP.

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The draft of the ad shows some lettering but it’s just a draft, + my eyesight sucks.

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I just never understood what’s the deal with this, who came first? Was RR under KIN for a while? Did they partner up to come up with the design? Did RR own KIN? Maybe I’ll send an email to both companies asking them about this.

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An old Reddit thread discussing the same thing.

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Thank you very much.

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Does anybody know if they produced them with the Koh-I-Noor text on the clip?

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rOtring bought KIN and continued to use the KIN clips until they were gone.

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I wonder if anybody has any… I need to get my hands on one.

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So strange to see myself mentioned in the thread before I joined Reddit lol… but yes, I’m of the mind that r600 descended from KIN’s long history of hexagonal designs going back to the Select-O-Matic 5617. The two companies had a lot of business dealings after WWII. KIN USA had split from its Czech parent, which had been nationalised. I’ve read comments that rOtring faced brand perception problems and sought partners to distribute their technical pens under different names…

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