In my experience saturation of these inks is mostly a matter of dilution, when they look washed out your best bet is let them evaporate slightly in the bottle. Serenity blue can be a very saturated ink when slightly evaporated and also will sheen in such case.

a wide range of available blue inks like Konigsblau, Serenity, MB royal blue, Aurora blue, Visconti blue, Kaweco blue, and others are, in my opinion, probably based on the same dye, most likely methylene blue. I can’t find specific details but the current bottle design has been used since the 1920s and 30s with slight variations. The faceted gemstone look of the bottle allows the bottle to be tipped onto its side to make it easier to get ink out as the ink levels begin to get lower. It’s one of my favorite ink bottles. In 1983 and celebrating the company's 100th anniversary, Waterman created the Le Man 100, aiming its products at the luxury writing market. Former French President François Mitterrand was known for carrying two wherever he went. Other designs that went on to be a landmark in luxury writing were the Lady Elsa and Lady Patricia contemporary writing pens. The Waterman company was acquired by the Bic company which went public in 1958 with a reverse merger; Bic would later sell off the Waterman division. [5]This ink used to belong to my mother; it was given to her by my dad along with a Waterman pen in the early to mid 1990s, I believe. I remember using it when I was in high school, and I inherited them both along with a bottle of Levenger Amethyst several years ago. As the 20th century wore on, Waterman's conservatism allowed its younger and more innovative competitors to gain market share— Parker, Sheaffer, and Wahl-Eversharp in particular. By the later 1920s, Waterman was attempting to catch up; it continued to struggle through and beyond World War II before finally shutting down in 1954. Nonetheless, it was after L.E. Waterman's death in 1901 that the company took off. Under the leadership of Waterman's nephew, Frank D. Waterman, the Waterman Pen Company expanded aggressively worldwide. While Waterman introduced its share of innovations, the company's main selling point was always quality and reliability. Successfully weathering the challenge of the ballpoint pen, it was acquired by The Gillette Company in March 1987 which grew overall sales by 40% with its aggressive North American sales [6] and later sold to Sanford, a division of Newell Rubbermaid (now known as Newell Brands), along with the Parker Pen Division, which Gillette acquired in 1993.

Waterman offers just eight colors in its ink line up. Of those eight colors, the names have changed over time but the colors have remained fairly consistent both in range and hue. The swatches shown above may show earlier names (i.e. Havana Brown which is now called Absolute Brown) but the ink colors are the same. I got into fountain pens just as Waterman was changing the ink names so I have had bottles with new and older names. The ink colors did not change. Waterman just updated the label designs and the names.Let’s compare each Waterman ink color with other similar inks. I’ll start with a color I initially didn’t like but have grown to love. It’s Waterman Harmonious Green. Again, I was thrown by the name. It’s not GREEN as I expected it to be and when I put it next to other similar swatches, it becomes clear that Harmonious Green is actually more of an aqua or a teal green than an actual Kelly or grass green. I think if the color had been named Jade Green or Jadeite it would probably be much more popular. Harmonious Green is quite similar to similarly-priced Kaweco Paradise Blue and the more expensive Pelikan Edelstein Jade. Pilot Iroshizuku Shin Ryoku, De Atramentis Petrol and Kobe #47 are all slightly more green but just by a tiny bit. So, I think Waterman (in my mind) Jadeite Green is in very good company. The Waterman Pen Company is a major manufacturing company of luxury fountain pens and inks, based in Paris, France. The firm was established in 1884 in New York City by Lewis Waterman, [1] being one of the few remaining first-generation fountain pen companies, as "Waterman S.A." Waterman doesn't get as much attention as the other inks because it is so well known, so reliable, and so "canonical" that it's no longer exciting and novel and interesting. It may be a standard by which other inks can be judged, but that's also what makes it less desirable. A lot of people want something different just because it's different and that appeals to people in various ways. Variety of colors is probably the biggest factor, but differences in flow, saturation, dry time, sheen, shading, and the like could all push someone to look for something other than Waterman inks. From the beginning, competition in the fountain pen industry was fierce, both in the marketplace and the courtroom. Despite later company literature that depicts Lewis E. Waterman as a golden-hearted innocent, all evidence indicates that he was a tough, savvy, and innovative businessman. In 1899 the L.E. Waterman Company developed the "spoon Feed" system which prevented the overflow of ink, which also led to the company receiving the gold medal of excellence at the "Exposition Universelle" in Paris in 1900.

I don’t know whether this is the same ink as Waterman’s current Mysterious Blue, since I haven’t used it yet, but from the samples that I’ve seen, the colors don’t look similar. Early Waterman pens were made of hard rubber and were equipped with 14K gold nibs. From early on, precious metal trim and overlays were offered. Many are still in use today, and their nibs are prized for their smoothness and flexibility. parts of serenity (or royal blue) + 1 part Diamine sargasso sea makes wonders, getting rid of the washed out effect ... (and uses up a good deal of serenity or royal blue at the same time). Tender Purple has a similar color and hue as Lamy Crystal Azurite but not quite as much sheen as Azurite. Coloverse 53 Hayabusa is similar in hue but with considerably less sheen. The only other inks I could find that were similar to Tender Purple are shown on the right and are more purple in color than the actual VIOLET color that Tender Purple actually is. I don’t want to get all “Well, ACTUALLY…” but knowing color is kind of my job. Tender Purple is violet, not purple. and Callifolio Violet is purple. These people are killing me with their poorly inaccurate naming. Either be ridiculously charming and clever or extremely accurate, please. Waterman Audacious Red shows some sheen which is similar the limited edition Franklin-Christoph ’19. The sheen in Audacious Red is not quite as pronounced and a little darker but the hue is quite similar. Seeing as how the Franklin-Christoph ’19 ink is harder to acquire than a pen show in 2020 (too soon for this joke?), Audacious Red is a good option. I included a swatch of Pelikan Edelstein Garnet which is slightly more orange and Diamine Matador and Red Dragon which are both slightly darker reds and Robert Oster Red Candy which is almost as dark as Red Dragon but not quite.

Ultimately, this “review” won’t really be valuable to anyone but me, since the ink is so old and not produced anymore, and may not be typical of what else is out there. Still, it’s a nice ink; it still writes well (medium flow) and the color is beautiful, and it’s an important ink bottle to me. Honestly, I think they should have hired someone from a nail polish company to give these lovely colors poppier names. Maybe Tender Purple should be called “Did You Do It on Purple?” and Inspired Blue could be “Pen Life Aquatic”? Okay… maybe these names need work but they are certainly more worthy of these pretty colors than “Harmonious Green” which is the lamest name ever. It's not easy to confirm that because ink recipes are kept very secret by all ink manufacturers, but all of these give similar colour tints, a deep blue slightly verging on red/purple.

Waterman Serenity Blue (again, the name is not fitting for the beauty of the color) is very similar to both Lamy Blue and Pilot Blue. These three inks, while simple in name are classic, workhorse ink colors. They are less saturated than the three inks shown on the right: Monteverde Sapphire, Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao and Monteverde 2018 DC Supershow Blue. Asa-Gao is the closest to Serenity Blue while the two Monteverde inks are deeper and darker. Waterman Absolute Brown (shown above as Havana Brown) is a warm, reddish brown. The closest ink comparison I could find was J. Herbin Terre de Feu though it is slightly more orange. Lamy Crystal Topaz is similar in hue but the sheen throws off the appearance of the color on some papers. Absolute Brown shades but does not sheen. After the enthusiastic reception of last week’s overview of the classic ink brand Sheaffer, it seemed appropriate to continue the series and follow it up with a Desk favorite, Waterman. Waterman has been making pens since 1883 and probably started making ink about the same time.

PASSIONATE ABOUT PENS

Waterman's French subsidiary, Waterman-JiF (Jules-Isidore Fagard) later Waterman S.A., continued to prosper and eventually absorbed what remained of the American company and its British arm. When you see how much these inks sheen, is it fair to give them such humdrum names? I don’t think so. Six out of the eight colors in the line sheen. Tender Purple, Inspired Blue, Harmonious Green and Serenity Blue are the most likely to sheen. Depending on your paper, Audacious Red and Mysterious Blue will sheen too. Since 2000 Waterman has been owned by the American group Newell Brands, through its subsidiary, Sanford L.P. History [ edit ]