WatermanCarène Fountain Pen | Metal & Blue Lacquer | Chiselled Cap | 18K Gold Fine Nib | Blue Ink | Gift Box

Carene pens are known to be some of the smoothest writers out there. Lovely pen. I recommend Waterman inks. Also note, don't keep this pen in a desk for weeks on end as these pens do dry out after a bit.

Absolutely in love with this pen. I went for the less expensive fine point and worried that it would be too thin. It's perfect, I almost wish it was thinner. Sample pictured. Came with a cartridge, a converter and instructions.I wanted to get a certain "149" pen popular among enthusiasts but considering my penmanship I thought this was more my speed. I couldn't be happier - looking forward to many years of practice with this elegant beauty.Waterman invented the fountain pen over 138 years ago, or at least the grooves that feed the nib from the reservoir. A lovely tidbit of history to share.Many attribute the much bemoaned decline of penmanship and the art of cursive to the rise of the ballpoint, given how much harder you must press at the right angle to use them. I'm not sure I agree, personally I blame word processing and the functionality of print. But I must admit I am in love with the flow and ease of this pen.Finally, many creators have noted that Waterman will exchange nibs free of charge if the nib is completely unused - including shipping to Paris and back, and their customer service is on par with their craftsmanship. Plus, you get a warranty for registering your pen!

I own two Waterman Carene fountain pens — I purchased them on Amazon.com without issue. That was not the case with this Waterman Carene L'essence du Bleu pen. This more expensive model of Waterman Carene arrived in deplorable condition, unable to write, and without the cartridge/converter.I performed a warm-water flush of the pen several times before use. It would start writing with the supplied ink cartridge, but ultimately, it stopped writing. I began to suspect that the problem *might* be that the ink cartridge was clogged.I replaced the provided ink cartridge with one of my Genuine Waterman Ink Cartridges. There was an improvement — the pen wrote without clogging immediately. But then a new problem became apparent. The pen did not lay down ink properly. It was bone-dry compared to my other two Waterman Carene pens.So, the lousy ink cartridge that was supplied had fouled the nib. I tried flushing the pen again several times with warm water, resulting in about a 50% improvement. But it still looked awful compared to writing samples using my other two pens.I searched online for a pen cleaning solution and discovered a *formula* for deep cleaning fountain pens, using nine parts warm water, 1 part 5% ammonia, and 4-5 drops of unscented dishwashing detergent. I mixed up a batch of fountain pen cleaning solution, about 300ml.Fortunately, I have the two cartridges/converters supplied with my other Waterman Carene pens. I *flushed* the pen a dozen times using one of my cartridge/converters and the solution. Then, I performed several additional flushes with warm water. I reassembled the pen using a Genuine Watermark Ink Cartridge and wrote some samples again.At this point, the pen puts down about 75-80% of the ink my other pens put down. There is a noticeable difference. I will clean it again using the rest of the solution I made. If it doesn't write correctly, I will return it to Amazon.com.In summary, this pen arrived:1) with a defective ink cartridge2) without a cartridge/converter3) with a thoroughly clogged ink delivery systemUPDATE. Using the remaining solution, I did another series of flushes of this Waterman Carene L'essence du Bleu. I then flushed it a few more times with warm water. This seems to have worked. The pen is now functioning like my two other Waterman Carene fountain pens. I am revising my review to two stars. It seems unfair to penalize Waterman for the poor condition of the pen on arrival. This was entirely the Seller's fault.My "guess" is that this particular pen was a return. And no one from the Seller bothered to verify that it was missing the Genuine Waterman ink cartridge and cartridge/converter. The pen was not cleaned upon return, so the ink from the previous customer had dried. To compound the issue, the Seller included an "old" ink cartridge that exacerbated the problem by further clogging the ink delivery system.WATERMAN: FIVE STARSSELLER: ONE STAR

Beautiful pen, elegant and feels solid and beautiful! I had an issue with the nib <f> it was a little bit scratchy so I send a message to Waterman to have the nib tuned or swap it took almost 2 weeks to have someone contacting me by that time I took the decision too return it! Is a beautiful pen but for a 18k gold nib and that kind of money I was expecting a better experience! I would probably would try again sometime in the future maybe with a <M> nib

I have several Waterman fountain pens. They all work great. This one is no exception. And even better yet, it is stunning. A beautiful pen. If you have never written with a Waterman fountain pen you owe it to yourself to try one out.

Love the design of the Waterman Carene. Super smooth gold nib. I have several WC fountain pens in different colors. This time I chose the F nib. All of my other Carenes are M nibs which lays down a thick, wet, juicy line. Like many others have observed they write like a B nib. I like both F & M nibs.

This is the second Carene in my collection. Quite happy with the pen. Love the color and the glitzy cap.Nib is not flexible, (as expected with an inlaid nib) I did switch nibs to a stub (free through Waterman) and now it's perfect. Would totally recommend if you are looking for an elegant pen.

The pen is confortable and very pleasant to write. Smooth nib and nice flow. Very elegant when open.The overall feeling is fine and aligned with the cost. Not a luxury feeling. The cap color aluminum is very very shiny - not sober. Overall plastic construction.The converter cartridge arrived broken.