Review by Laura Cameron
When Pelikan released the photos of the Souverän M600 Turquoise-White I was pretty smitten. Even though it was more than any pen I had owned previously, I was dying to get my hands on one. So when Pelikan offered to loan a ballpoint and fountain set to the Desk for review, Ana made me promise three times to return it when I was done.
The Souverän M600 Turquoise-White is the newest special edition Pelikan (it joins previous White and Pink editions). The set feature barrels with Pelikan’s signature stripes white and turquoise acetate, white end caps, and 24 carat gold accents (rings and clip). The fountain pen features a 14 carat two toned nib with rhodium trim. When given a choice of nib, I asked to test an EF.
The first thing I noticed when I received these pens was the color difference between the promotional photos and the pens themselves. While the promotional photos showed a much greener-leaning color, the pens I received were bright blue. They do remind me of turquoise tropical waters, but not so much of the turquoise gemstone.
The pens themselves were beautiful. I spent most of my time with the fountain pen, which I filled with J. Herbin Orange Indien for a nice contrast. The pen wrote smoothly from the get go. The nib itself was wider than I was used to (Pelikans have Western sized nibs, so an EF writes more like a Japanese Fine or Medium), but writing with it was like butter. It just glided over the page, unlike any other pen I have used.
The pen itself is moderately sized, just on the upper end of what is comfortable for my small hand. As you can see below, I have an M200 that is a bit shorter and thinner, and the M600 is close to the width of the Sailor 1911 and the Platinum 3776, if a bit shorter. The fountain pen comes in at 18 g unfilled, and 13.3 cm unposted (the cap does post, yielding a length of 15.4 cm. The ballpoint weights 24.9 g and is 12.8cm long.
I should say, that I did test the ballpoint and was quite impressed with how it wrote. I admit that most of my ballpoint experience is either at the low end of the market (Pentel R.S.V.P. Fine at work) or in the Retro 51 category (I love my Retro 51s). The Pelikan ballpoint was quite a different experience; it required very little pressure and the application was fairly even compared to those Pentels!
Overall, I really enjoyed the opportunity to test the Pelikan Souverän set. They are beautiful pens and I aspire to own one some day!
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were loaned free of charge by Pelikan for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
It drives me CRAZY that Pelikan flips the striated parts between the fountain and ballpoint pens. With both clipped in my breast pocket, they don’t match! I’ve got an M600/K600 FP/BP set in green and I keep the FP and BP in separate cases. It’s like they don’t even belong together. (Yeah I’ve got bad pen OCD, and I’m off my meds…)
Hah! I don’t disagree with you at all.
Great review and excellent photography. The turquoise looks amazing on this pen, it’s probably one of the pretties Pelikans on the market today.
You are right the photos are totally misleading. When I am looking at the marketing photos they have a greenish blush but the photos you are sharing are the actual color which is more of a blue and no green at all in the blue.. i was considering this pen for a while but i will pass. I already have the pink limited edition and the classic blue and green ones. Thank you.