On January 1, 2019 Quill & Pad celebrates its five-year anniversary. And in honor of this milestone, we take a look at some of the great stories and photos from the last 1,825 days that have helped make this publication a fun, informative, and visually interesting one.

While Quill & Pad focuses on high-quality wristwatches, right from the start we have also reported on experiences with other – at times quite related – luxury items such as automobiles and pens.

For many watch enthusiasts, writing instruments is also a significant secondary fascination. In a lot of cases, these two worlds have intersected as this shortlist of fun stories shows:

• Pen Maker Grayson Tighe And Watchmaker Peter Speake-Marin Find Inspiration In Dong Son Drum Art
• Grayson Tighe Series 1 Pen Collaboration With Blancpain: It’s Carved In Steel!
• Ground Control To Major Tom, “Help Is On Its Way!”: Astrograph By Caran d’Ache And MB&F
• Blancpain’s Pen Pal: Canadian Pen Maker Grayson Tighe
• Breguet: The Pen Whisperer

For more on the correlation between watches and pens, check out Nancy Olson’s Can Writing Instruments Be As Collectible And Enthusiast-Infused As Watches?

Grayson Tighe Series 4 for Blancpain

Martin Green regularly writes about his adventures in the world of collecting pens, and Nancy Olson – one of the pen world’s foremost authorities – also often provides some opinion on various examples of the high art of pen making.

Here are five inked stories from the last five years that stand out. We hope you enjoy reading them and looking at the photos. But above all, we hope you can vicariously feel the smooth ink as it flows out on the paper.

Richard Mille RMS05 Mechanical Fountain Pen

At SIHH 2016, Richard Mille once again surprised everyone. And not with a new material or even another million-dollar watch. This time it was a fountain pen the likes of which had never been seen before.

Richard Mille RMS05 fountain pen

Nancy described this pen as “thrilling.” And I too found it entrancing. The reason for our collective excitement was the fact that this pen uses a visible mechanical movement to facilitate its action: a skeletonized base plate, bridges made of grade 5 titanium, and a 12-jewel mechanical “heart” extend the pen’s white gold nib.

See it in detail in Richard Mille RMS05 Mechanical Fountain Pen.

Jaquet Droz’s Aesthetic Writing Instrument (aka Nice Pen)

Back in 2015 I had the chance to borrow the writing instrument Jaquet Droz offered in its lineup of accessories that year for a few weeks, one made by a pen industry leader: Montegrappa. Of course, Montegrappa’s involvement allowed Jaquet Droz to get the details of this beautiful ballpoint pen down right, in particular the ink flow and balance.

The Jaquet Droz pen feels very balanced in the hand and writes smoothly

Find my full review, including a number of Ian’s beautiful photos, at Jaquet Droz’s Aesthetic Writing Instrument (aka Nice Pen).

Hermès Puts Pen To Paper With The Nautilus

Back in 2014, Hermès introduced a pen as part of the Hermès Writing Collection. But not just any pen: the Nautilus was the result of a collaboration between famed Australian designer Marc Newson and Hermès’ artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas.

Three of the colors available for the Hermès Nautilus pens (photo courtesy Vicente Sahuc)

The actual production of the fountain and ballpoint pens was completed by Pilot, including the use of a version of Pilot’s clever Vanishing Point capless system.

For Nancy’s full take on it, please see Hermès Puts Pen To Paper With The Nautilus.

The Height Of Fine Writing: On Location With Montblanc Fine Writing Instruments

Back in 2014, Montblanc invited Ian and I up to Hamburg to visit what is quite possibly the Mecca of fine writing instruments: Montblanc’s writing instrument factory. In this post you can learn how a nib is made and what an “invisible-writing room” is, where “the writing expert puts the soul into the pen.”

It is easier to appreciate nib details by looking at a large-scale Montblanc nib

Take part in this “you are there” experience by clicking The Height Of Fine Writing: On Location With Montblanc Fine Writing Instruments.

The Quest For The Ultimate Fountain Pen

In this trilogy of articles, Martin Green takes us through his various periods of collecting along the search for his ultimate fountain pen. Does he ever find it?

Martin Green’s Louis Vuitton Cargo fountain pen

You’ll have to look at these entertaining posts to find the answer to that.

• The Quest For My Ultimate Fountain Pen Part 1: The All-Over-The-Place Period
• The Quest For My Ultimate Fountain Pen Part 2: The Italian Period
• The Quest For My Ultimate Fountain Pen Part 3: The Luxury Brand Period

You may also enjoy:

• The Pen That Is Mightier Than The Sword: Fonderie 47’s Exclusive Collaboration With Cross
• Caran d’Ache Offers The Spirit Of Switzerland In An Ornately Engraved Pen
• Montblanc For BMW Centennial Fountain Pen: Celebrating The BMW 7 Series Jubilee Edition Next 100 Years
• Grayson Tighe Series 2 Pen Collaborations With Blancpain: Hand-Sculptured Titanium Writing Instruments That Tick (All The Boxes)