The Leuchtturm1917 limited edition hardcover notebooks are almost exactly like their standard counterparts, but they have just enough extra pizzazz to make it worth the extra couple of bucks. Having been a Leuchtturm fan and customer for many years, I didn't think much about the shiny new colors this year, which mark the company's 100th anniversary, but having one in hand changed my opinion.
If you've never owned a Leuchtturm notebook, you should consider changing that. They're not ground-breaking in any sense, but they just work well and look great at the same time. Want something that looks like a Moleskine but performs well? Leuchtturm is one of the many high-quality options for this category, and the shiny limited edition notebooks take this a step further.
The silver version I have is shiny, smooth, and almost white in direct light. The banding and bookmarks are a matching light gray that work well with the overall color scheme. Color-coordinated banding to match the cover color is nothing new for Leuchtturm, but I'm glad to see that the gray works well with the shiny silver. They even went the extra mile and added silver accents to the included sticker pack for labeling and archiving your notebook. It's small touches like these that make me happy to have one of the limited edition notebooks.
Once you make it to the inside of the notebook, everything is standard. For those who haven't had the pleasure of using a Leuchtturm notebook, the paper is a fantastic acid-free 80gsm with minimal coating, giving it a great feel and fast dry times for most inks. In my testing, you can almost always expect a small amount of show-through on the back of the page with most inks, but it doesn't make the back page unusable. The only ink I normally have trouble with in Leuchtturm paper is the Schmidt P8126 refill — the refill found in the Retro 51 Tornado. Apart from that, mileage will vary depending on the ink and nib combo, but it's reasonably well-behaved with most inks.
The dot-grid pattern on this paper is perfect — a medium gray dot spaced at about 5mm. Of course, all Leuchtturm books have numbered pages, and this one is no exception.
The notebook features two bookmarks — one is a solid light gray, and the other is a striped gray. This makes it easy to keep track of two different sections of your book. The closure band is also strong and secure, keeping your notebook closed securely when not in use.
Being a pocket notebook (A6), it can have trouble staying open and laying flat on its own. Once the spine is broken in a bit, it stays open easier, but it's always going to have trouble given the small size.
The only exterior branding is located on the lower back cover — a small embossed Leuchtturm1917 logo. There's not much branding on the interior — just the standard information page at the beginning of the book followed by a couple of "contents" pages so that you can organize the notebook into paginated sections for easy reference.
One thing to note is that any information, marketing, or literature is repeated in 3 languages: German, English, and French. It can be a bit distracting to see three versions of the same thing, but it's minimal since 99.9% of the notebook is blank. It's really only noticeable on the packaging.
There are 187 pages in the notebook, along with 12 perforated, detachable sheets in the back.
I've always enjoyed Leuchtturm notebooks, and this one is no exception. They've well-made, perform well, and are affordable. A perfect combination and value!
Along with silver, you can also find the limited edition notebooks in gold and copper in dotted, ruled, and plain style. Each notebook is just under $18, which is about $5 more than the regular colors. If you ask me, the extra money is worth the shiny pop of silver, gold, and copper on the cover, and a great way to support the 100 year anniversary of a beloved stationery company.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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