Platinum Announces New Product: Curidas – Retractable Fountain Pen

TOKYO, JAPAN – After weeks of speculation, Platinum has officially announced on social media that they will be launching a retractable fountain pen – the Platinum Curidas.

The Curidas will be Platinum’s answer to Pilot’s Vanishing Point/Decimo and Lamy’s Dialog 3 – which are both retractable as well. The Pilot Vanishing Point has been popular for many years because it is an affordable (~$150) gold nib pen (bonus points for the unique style). Platinum also announced on Instagram that the MSRP of the Curidas will be $80. By the time that the Curidas is made available, which is around mid-February 2020 March 2020, it will be the cheapest retractable fountain pen in the market (excluding the obscure Chinese fountain pens).

The design

Unlike its Pilot and Lamy counterparts, the Platinum Curidas has a stainless steel nib rather than gold. The body is made out of resin as opposed to Pilot and Lamy’s metal bodied retractable fountain pens. The stainless steel nib and the resin body are major factors to its affordability, which is what they intended in the first place.

While materials aren’t premium (albeit high-quality), Platinum was still intentional about how they designed the pen’s capping mechanism. Just like the Platinum 3776’s Slip and Seal cap (which claims to prevent the ink from drying out after 2 years), the Curidas also promises lesser-than-average ink drying out time.

These are demonstrator fountain pens that come in 5 different colors (reminiscent of the Platinum #3776 fountain pen colors)

• Prism Crystal (clear)
• Graphite Smoke (black)
• Urban Green
• Abyss Blue
• Gran Red

The Curidas has a small clip which is positioned near the nib, similar to the Pilot Vanishing Point. However, the difference is that the clip is removable, which is a good option for those who feel that the clip will bother them while they write. The clip isn’t as easy to remove as the Kaweco Sport‘s; the Curidas will require a clip tool (which will be included). They explain it more on their YouTube channel.

Other things to note

Platinum has confirmed that the proprietary converters will not be included. You will need to buy these separately.

Since the Curidas has a click mechanism, filling the ink and replacing cartridge/converters will be different to the standard methods – even a little bit different with the Pilot Vanishing point. Platinum has also released a how-to video on their YouTube channel.

Speaking of nibs, the Curidas will only come with 3 nib size offerings – Extra Fine, Fine, Medium.

Are you Curidas yet?