Which ballpoint pen is the best Mont Blanc alternative?

Which ballpoint pen is the best Mont Blanc alternative?

The ballpoint pens by Mont Blanc are timeless, elegant, of very high quality and with their high price, they definitely fall into the category of luxury ballpoint pens. Here you can see a review of the entry-level Mont Blanc Pix.

Now, with a Mont Blanc ballpoint pen, in addition to the high quality, you also pay for the name. So the question is: is there a Mont Blanc alternative? Which means, is there a ballpoint pen with a comparable quality and design to the Mont Blanc?

Click here to skip directly to the conclusion.

The decisive criteria for the comparison are the materials used, the quality of processing, design, handling, ballpoint refill and the price.

Inhalt:

1. Mont Blanc alternatives for comparison

Ballpoint pens for comparison are:

Mont Blanc PIX

Cleo Skribent Classic Palladium

Waterman Expert Essential Black

Parker Sonnet

These ballpoint pens look most like the ballpoint pens by Mont Blanc and are also made by brand manufacturers. If you click on the respective name, you will get to a detailed test of the respective pen with many detailed pictures.

2. Materials used

Can the materials of the compared pens keep up with the Mont Blanc?

The Mont Blanc is made of high-grade resin, a high-quality plastic, and platinum-plated parts.

The Cleo Skribent Classic Palladium is also primarily made of high-grade resin, with the accents finished in palladium.

Cleo Skribent material — Waterman Expert Essential Black

The Waterman Expert (35.4 g) and Parker Sonnet (28.3 g) ballpoint pens are primarily made of brass, lacquered with clear varnish. This makes them significantly heavier than the Mont Blanc (19.9 g). On the Parker Sonnet, the parts with the gold accents are gold-plated brass, and on the Waterman Expert, these parts are also plated with palladium.

Material Waterman material — Waterman Expert

So, with the Mont Blanc alternatives, the manufacturers also resorted to high-quality materials. However, the advantage of the high-grade resin is the lower weight and higher resistance to scratches.

3. Workmanship of the Mont Blanc alternatives

The processing quality of the Mont Blanc Pix is perfect. Can the alternatives keep up?

All three Mont Blanc alternatives are very well made, details can be found in the respective pen reviews. Only the Waterman Expert had a slightly greasy refill, which was overlooked in the quality control. This does not impact the functionality of the pen as long as you do not change the refill, and the refill did not leak or anything. Nevertheless, this should not happen with a high quality, handcrafted ballpoint pen.

4. Design of the Mont Blanc alternatives

The classic Mont Blanc design impresses with simple elegance and timelessness. Visually, the Mont Blanc Pix and its alternatives are very similar. The basic design of all compared pens is the same: black high-gloss body and single silver/gold shiny accents.

Mont Blanc Pix comparison — Mont Blanc Pix

Cleo Skribent Palladium Classic as Mont Blanc Alternative — Cleo Skribend Classic Palladium

Waterman Expert comparison — Waterman Expert Essential Black

Parker Sonnet Mont Blanc Alternative pen — Parker Sonnet

However, when it comes to the shape, clip and tip, the pens differ slightly in their details. Whether the original or the designs of the alternatives are more beautiful is probably a matter of personal taste.

4. Handling of the Mont Blanc alternatives

With a diameter of 1.1 in and a weight of 19.9 g, the Mont Blanc Pix sits well in the hand. The refill is pleasantly easy to pull out with the twist mechanism and you can feel it clicking into place.

The refills of all the Mont Blanc alternatives compared here can also be pulled out with a twist mechanism. However, is not as smooth as the Mont Blanc and is bit more tense, but thid doesn’t make it worse.

The Parker and Waterman pens are significantly heavier than the Mont Blanc Pix, the Cleo Skribent only a few grams. However, the center of gravity of the Waterman Expert is in the front, so the higher weight affects it the least here.

The advantage of the higher weight is that the pen feels a bit more premium. However, this can be annoying when writing or even when transporting it in a jacket pocket or similar.

5. Comparison of the Mont Blanc alternatives refills

The Mont Blanc pen writes smoothly and well without smearing.

Mine Mont Blanc PIX comparison — Mont Blanc Pix

The refills of the Mont Blanc alternatives differ in this aspect in that the refills of the Parker and Waterman pens write more finely and are therefore somewhat less easy to move over the paper. The refill of the Cleo Skribent emits a bit more ink than a standard ballpoint refill and thus writes very smoothly, but also a bit thicker. However, the ink does not smear as quickly as with a gel pen.

Cleo Skribent refill — Cleo Skribend Palladium Classic

Waterman Expert refill — Waterman Expert Essential Black

By the way, the best alternative to the Mont Blanc Mine is the Space Pen, as you can read here.

5. Price and conclusion

The prices of the Mont Blanc alternatives compared here are in a range of about 60-70 €. So for the price of a Mont Blanc Pix, you would be able to buy all of the pens compared here instead.

For that, you would get a ballpoint pen that looks similar to a Mont Blanc, that is made of the same or a similar high-quality material and also writes well. The pens differ in weight and individual aspects. The biggest difference, however, is the brand. Parker, Cleo Skribent, and Waterman are not unknown and are also traditional brands. But the Mont Blanc brand is much more widespread, and most people associate it with luxury, style, and quality, so for the price you also get a status symbol.

But if you are looking for a Mont Blanc alternative, you already know that a corresponding alternative naturally is not a Mont Blanc and will therefore look for a ballpoint pen with similar features. You can find a summary of these here: