As the international trade show Watches and Wonders took place in Geneva last week, lovely new timepieces made their debut. Some of the them are complicated and some are more straightforward, but each is an expression of the person or team who designed it and the visionary company that brought it to fruition.
And this made me think of Montegrappa’s Anytime by Paolo Favaretto, which is a writing instrument nod to one of my favorite watch complications, the perpetual calendar. The pen was introduced last year, but I think it deserves a recap—particularly during a leap year, which is when the perpetual calendar watch complication really shines.
While not new, the perpetual calendar is highly esteemed among watch collectors for a whole variety of reasons, not the least of which is its usually uncomplicated-looking exterior that belies what’s within: a perpetual calendar complication indicates the date and corrects automatically for months with less than 31 days, as well as leap years. Of course its purpose and construction are vastly different in a pen, but the Anytime by Paolo Favaretto is nonetheless one more expression of Montegrappa’s reverence for timekeeping (remember the Bartolomeo Ferracina pen-watch from a few years back?). It also represents the company’s exquisite attention to detail in every piece it makes.
Designed by its namesake, the eponymous founder of the industrial design studio Favaretto & Partners, the pen features a cap-mounted perpetual calendar “complication” with three notched dials to manually adjust the month, day, and date. The dials are outfitted with enamel, and their operation recalls the mechanical locking of Montegrappa’s ratchet piston-fill fountain pen mechanism.
There are two variations in the collection: The Maestro is crafted in black Delrin with stainless steel trim and the Supremo is in polished burgundy resin with gold-plated brass trim. The piston-filled fountain pen has an ebonite feed and an 18-karat gold nib, available in extra fine, fine, medium, broad, and stub widths. The fountain pen is a comfortable 143mm in length and weighs about 56.0 grams. Favaretto’s signature is artfully evident on the gripping section. These limited editions comprise 365 fountain pens and rollerball pens, the number referencing the days in a year.
The award-winning Favaretto—who is also a pen collector—has an impressive resume, having attended the University of Venice where he studied architecture before setting up his design practice in Padua. He has spent over 50 years in his profession creating furniture, lighting, office accessories, and more. “Montegrappa always cares about the originality,” he said. These pens are nothing if not original.
Favaretto’s designs for office or home are quite imaginative, often displaying whimsical styles and ergonomic footprints. And he, like Montegrappa, finds beauty in the details, which is why the pen’s packaging is so appropriate for the contents. Each sturdy burgundy box has an insert that perfectly hugs the pen; a bottle of black ink is included. The outside reads “Anytime” in script, with other imagery referencing the calendar complication.
An interesting aside: Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the perpetual calendar wristwatch, though the complication itself dates much earlier.
Handwriting predates them all.