The Monteverde Prima is another of the gloriously swirly body designs from the Monteverde line. Like the Intima, the colored resin is beautifully done. While the Intima is lime green blended with white and kelly green, the Prima is blended with black. For some reason the luminous, almost iridescent quality to the resin is more noticeable in the Prima.
The Prima has black accents with small chrome details. The clip and the nib on the Prima are silver toned instead of black. Overall, the Prima has a more traditional fountain pen look even though the colored resin is very contemporary and vivid.
There is a slight transparency to the green resin so I can see the shadow of the internal workings of the pen. I don’t think its noticeable unless you’re looking intensely at the pen. I suspect in darker resin colors, this effect is probably less evident.
The pen is heavier than I expected, it feels solid. The Prima and Intima are my first experiences with resin fountain pens rather then plastic or metal. The material feels sturdy.
The nib is super silky. I am continually being surprised by how nice the Monteverde nibs are. I’ve now tried the medium nib, the 1.1mm stub nib and this, the fine nib. It easily writes in almost any position. If I grab it to jot a quick note, there is no needing to find the “sweet spot”. Its also so slick that when combined with good ink and high quality paper, I have to work a little to keep the nib from getting ahead of me. I think this makes this pen a good candidate for a drier ink (or a not-necessarily lubricated ink) and the assorted, everyday papers found in the average office. I tested it on a few copies — the standard 20-24# bond found in most pritners and copiers — and the nib had a bit more “traction” which worked out well. It definitely makes this a good option for an office pen, where you may have less control over exactly what kinds of paper you may have to write on.
The nib is labelled “Monteverde Monteverde USA” and feature the jagged mountain range logo across the nib. Why they need the brand name twice in that wretched Architect font, I do not know? That said, the branding on this pen is also very subtle. It only appears etched in the chrome ring around the base of the cap and on the nib. On the end of the cap is the mountain range branding mark which, while I don’t love it, I can tolerate it.
Like the Imtima, if lime green isn’t your thing, there are a lot of other colors. I particularly like the turquoise and the tiger’s eye colors. I’m getting lured by the purple though. Who’d a thunk?
The Monteverde Prima is available at both Goulet Pens and Pen Chalet for $56 in the full range of colors and nib sizes.
Thanks so much to Jon who very kindly decided I might want another green fountain pen. He was so right.
Thanks for the good review! This pen looks fantastic. This is my first encounter with the Monteverde line. The $50 price point is similar to the Prera price through JetPens.
1. Do you notice any major difference between the two pens? My next one was going to be a white medium Prera, but I will wait to hear how you compare the two.
2. Lastly, are you familiar with the roller ball version of this Monteverde Prima? I think my wife would die for the turquoise color swirl, but she prefers roller ball.
1. Compared to the Prera, the Prima is much weightier. A Prera weighs about 16gms compared to the 28gms of the Prima. Part of this is because of the metal grip area on the Prima making it feel more solid and sturdy. The Prima F nib is probably comparable to the Prera M nib, those Japanese nibs are a lot finer so if a fine nib is of interest to you, you might prefer the Prera.
2. Monteverde offers a wide variety of rollerball refills as well as accepting the classic European rollerball refills which means you can refill the rollerball with Schmidt refills or Pilot G2 or so much more. Check the refill guide for all the possibilities. I think a Monteverde Prima in the rollerball model would be a great option.
Did I answer your questions?
Perfect! Thanks.
Thx for the review. Careful and informative, as always. Your comments prompted me to order a tiger-eye.
Thanks for the review. I’m not a huge green pen fan but this one is executed better than other Green Monteverdes I have come across. Glad you found the nib smooth. This price range seems to give me hit and miss on nib performance out of the box.
Glad you like it!