The G-SHOCK of Fountain Pens: the Pilot Varsity

Without a doubt, my favorite pen is the LAMY AL-Star. I could (and very well might) write paragraphs about this incredible fountain pen — something which would be an absolute joy, thanks in large part to the lovely experience the LAMY offers — but that’s not the pen I’m here to talk about today. That’s because, despite my fondness for the iconic AL-Star, it is not the pen I use most. It’s not even the fountain pen I use the most. No, that honor goes to the humble Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pen.

I would categorize the LAMY AL-Star (and its remarkably similar sibling, the Safari) as the Seiko of fountain pens. Like a Seiko, it is often cited as a great first fountain pen for people looking to try something outside the typical rollerballs and ballpoints we see everyday. Also like a Seiko, the LAMY is a gateway pen, one which often leads to other more expensive options. The LAMY could easily be the one pen with which you live your entire life.

For a totally reasonable amount of money, anyone could be happy with a LAMY, just as anyone could be happy with a Seiko SPB Diver. The AL-Star’s got everything you need, and nothing you don’t. It’s well-made, well-designed, and comes in so many variations that it would be hard not to find one that suits your taste. Pen collectors I know who have pens many multiples (sometimes many, many) the value of the LAMY still frequently cite it as one of their favorites.

But if the LAMY is the Seiko of fountain pens, then the Pilot Varsity is the G-Shock — robust, reliable, damn good, and (mercifully) cheap. I own dozens of these pens. They are scattered around my apartment, stuck in random bags, and clipped to or stuck in just about every notebook I own.

I am never out of arm’s reach of a Pilot Varsity.

Right about now is where I would typically want to give you some history about the Pilot Varsity. Unfortunately, I’m hard-pressed to find much about the history of this pen. I do know that Pilot has been producing fountain pens in Japan for over a century — since 1916 and that, at some point in the last few decades, they started producing a line of disposable fountain pens, which were then slightly re-designed sometime around 2014.

I’ve been using the Pilot Varsity for about twenty years now. I don’t exactly remember the first time I picked up the Pilot Varsity, but in a quick phone conversation with my mother, she confirmed my memory that I started using them early in my elementary school days.

I know that for many, using fountain pens in grade school might seem a bit odd, but I went to a French school outside of Boston when I was young, something which acted as a bit of a doorway into the world of stationary at a very early age. As I recall, fountain pens were at the very least encouraged, if not at times outright required (though I’m sure friends will correct me if necessary).

Regardless, a French school meant at last a partially French education, and a French education meant learning handwriting. And learning handwriting (and more specifically, cursive) required two specific tools: Clairfontaine French-ruled (also known as Seyès or Grands Carreaux) notebooks, and fountain pens.

And so it was that fountain pens came to take pride of place in the pencil cases of me and my classmates. Of course, when you’re in school, you can’t just have one pen. You need different colors, and extras for when you inevitably lose a pen (or someone else did) or run out of ink. I’m sure the Pilot Varsity was a welcome discovery for many of my peer’s parents.

I left that school after fourth grade, and, for the most part, stopped using fountain pens for a few years. I had flirtations with ballpoint pens, rollerballs (can anyone out there deny the incredible Pilot G-2?), and even a few mechanical pencils but, by the end of high school, I was back on board with the fountain pen.

My school bookstore had started stocking the Pilot Varsity, so I picked a few up out of a sense of nostalgia. Soon, I was refilling one of my old cartridge pens and using the various fountain pens as part of my daily rotation. But I soon realized something. In the real world — outside the guarded confines of a French school — the Pilot Varsity has some real advantages.

For one thing, I have never once experienced a Pilot Varsity leak. The same cannot be said for every fountain pen I own, and there’s nothing like a fountain pen leak on an airplane to turn you off the concept. The Pilot Varsity also uses a different wicking system than a typical fountain pen, and it releases less ink. 

This is particularly noticeable on cheaper papers, where fountain pen ink can bleed profusely, making writing incredibly difficult to read. As an aside, if you want to render your blue book exams unreadable, I suggest a combination of fountain pen and rushed cursive. The Pilot Varsity does not suffer from the same affliction, and so became the pen I used to write every one of my exams in college.

Another huge advantage in favor of the Pilot Varsity comes on the maintenance side of things. I have never known a Pilot Varsity to dry out or get jammed. They require no cleaning, and you don’t have to refill them. I’d go so far as to say that I have never experienced a more reliable pen in my life. 

I’m not the only one who has noticed the reliability of the Pilot Varsity — even royalty and world leaders have been spotted using the pen. The Pilot V-Pen (a European market version of the Varsity) was even used to sign the Proclamation of Accession of Charles III. Save for King Charles himself, who used his own pen (after shooing away the tray of Pilots), all involved in the ceremony signed the important document using, you guessed it, a disposable Pilot fountain pen. 

Just like a G-Shock, the Pilot Varsity is the ultimate choice when reliability is paramount.

I’m not going to dive into the intricacies of the nib or writing experience. As I’ve said, my favorite pen is undoubtedly the LAMY AL-Star. That pen seems to float along the surface of paper and I’ve yet to find a pen I enjoy as much. But the Pilot Varsity comes really close. The line it produces is a bit thinner, and the body of the Pilot Varsity may not feel quite as nice in hand, but it does its job remarkably well, and that’s all I want from it.

I’ve never really grown past the G-Shock/Seiko stage of my pen collecting — there are only so many expensive hobbies a guy can juggle — and so I fully admit I’m not speaking from a place of highly developed expertise. That I’ll leave to Brett Braley.

What I will say, from a perspective of unbridled enthusiasm, is that, on some random day about twenty years ago, I walked into Bob Slate Stationary and picked up a cheap, disposable fountain pen that has become a steady companion, and one of my most constantly used tools in life. I would highly recommend checking one out. After all, it’ll only cost you $3.20.