Aurora is the most expensive pen brand in the world.
Or, is it?
Every year, Aurora produces Aurora Diamante priced at $1.47 million. Some Web sites say Aurora Diamante is priced at $1.7 million. It holds the no. 1 spot as the most expensive pen if Montblanc doesn’t have a new limited edition pen.
Most Web sites say Montblanc’s most expensive is the Boheme Royal priced at $1.5 million. Montblanc’s most expensive pen is the Taj Mahal priced at $2 million, followed by the Great Wall (of China) priced at a few thousand dollars less than $2 million.
It is arguable which is the most expensive pen brand in the world, brand being the operative word. It is inarguable, however, that the most expensive pen – pen, not pen brand – in the world is Tibaldi’s Fulgor Nocturnus sold straight to a Shanghai auction in 2010 for $8 million. No pen from whatever company has dislodged the Fulgor Nocturnus from the no. 1 spot since 2010, so far.
My goodness $8 million; why not just get a brand new Ferrari or Lamborghini car? Fulgor Nocturnus is relatively low maintenance; it won’t rack up maintenance fees the way a Ferrari or a Lamborghini will.
Montblanc owned Tibaldi from 2000 to 2009. Tibaldi was already owned by Montegrappa when it released the Fulgor Nocturnus.
Montegrappa pens are also quite pricey, and Montegrappa’s Ancient Mexican Civilisations Rollerball Pen belongs to one of the top 10 most expensive pen lists in the Net.1
Another pen brand that produces million-dollar pens is Caran d’Ache whose 1010 Diamond Edition is priced at around $1 million (different Web sites give different prices for the same pen).
Tibaldi, Montblanc, Aurora, Caran d’Ache, and Montegrappa all have “affordable” variants, especially Caran d’Ache which has pens priced at only ₱100+ available at National Book Store, Philippines.
The cheapest pen of Montblanc is more expensive than the cheapest variant of the other brands aforementioned. Around first week of November 2022, Montblanc’s cheapest variant in the Philippines was priced at ₱14,100. The price jumped to ₱16,200 a week later. I doubt a price reversal would occur after the holidays.
So, which is the most expensive pen brand in the world?2 Tibaldi? Montblanc? Aurora? Caran d’Ache?
And, what is the classiest (not most expensive) pen brand in the world?
I think the answer to that is subjective. What one considers classy may be second-rate to another. I, for one, gravitate towards Cross even though Cross never sold a pen amounting to a million dollars.
Notes
1”Top 10 Most Expensive Pens.” Catawiki. N.d. Web. <https://www.catawiki.com/en/stories/4947-top-10-most-expensive-pens>.
2Prices and top positions may have changed at the time of this piece’s publication. While I consider Tibaldi to be above Montblanc and any other pen brand currently in existence, I do think (though still arguable) that Montblanc is the most famous luxury pen brand in the world.
