The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 606 - It's Orange Obviously

Obviously there is a Pen Addict watch, right? Myke and I drop some news on you this week, with the stealth launch of the Nodus Sector Dive GMT – The Pen Addict Edition. I also interview Wesley Kwok, Co-Founder of Nodus Watches, in the latter half of this week’s episode, so be sure to give it a listen!

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

Pen Chalet: Click the ‘podcast’ link at the top of the website and enter the password 'penaddict' for this week's special offer, and to get your code for 10% off.

Penquisition Touchstone Fountain Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

Penquisition, home of many useful review blogs and keeper of one of the more fun and tempting pen show tables, have teamed up with pen designer Ben Walsh of Gravitas Pens to bring us the Touchstone Fountain Pen. The pen is made from anodized aluminum and is carefully curated to be the goldilocks of pen sizes. It's not too wide or narrow. It's a full-length pen that will be comfortable in most grips, but short enough to fit in most pockets or pen holders. The grip section is gently shaped, but not in a way that steers the hand toward any one grip style. Basically, they've set out to make a pen that is comfortable for anyone to use. And while I can't speak for everyone, it was certainly comfortable for me.

The pen body is widest toward the middle, with a gradual taper toward either end, terminating in pointed finials. The cap screws on with metal threads, and is slightly wider than the body, leaving a clear edge so that you always know which end is up. The surface is a matte finish that still looks shiny but avoids the mirror-finish that collects fingerprints. The grip section is slightly narrowed at the middle, with a flare to prevent slipping, and is textured with very subtle ridges to help with grip. Ink does get into these ridges, especially when filling the pen, but they are shallow enough that it was easy to wipe them clean.

The pen comes in three very attractive colors. I chose the Orange with a deep Green grip section, but there is also a Purple with a Teal grip and a Blue with Red grip. It is taking a lot of willpower to not order the Purple one and create a frankenpen of the beautiful combinations.

The pen comes with a steel #6 Jowo nib engraved with the Penquisition logo. My EF nib was a little snaggy on arrival, with the right tine catching on the paper during certain directional strokes, but it smoothed out nicely with a few swipes of micromesh. Overall it writes very nicely, with great flow and the nib did not dry out even when I left the pen in my bag without using it for a week.

The pen also comes with a full-size converter, which doesn't look like it would fit in the pen from the outside, but Ben has access to TARDIS technology apparently, because it does indeed fit.

The first run of these pens also comes with a custom Rickshaw Bagworks Solo Pen Sleeve, turning this awesome duo into a trifecta of pen collaboration. I love to see this all come together, and the end result is a fantastic product. I've carried this pen daily since it arrived in its rad pen sleeve, and really enjoyed using it. The only days I didn't use it were when I ignored it on purpose to see if it would start up again right away after being neglected for a while. It was difficult to not use it! I kept reaching for it, and had to remind myself to use something else. I do feel that they've achieved their design goal of making a perfectly comfortable, portable pen. At $129, it's also priced well for what you get.

Well done, team. I hope that there will be more fantastic collaborations like this in the future.

(Penquisition provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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A Pen Addict’s Watch? The Nodus Sector Dive GMT - Pen Addict Edition

(A huge Pen Addict thanks to Michael Harris for not only writing this article, but for running point on this project. It turned out amazing, and I hope you like it.)

What is weirder? A podcast about pens, or a podcast about watches? And if there are worse addictions, what are they? Well, this first of its kind collaboration between a pen podcast and a watch brand, was birthed on the Pen Addict Slack #watches channel, may help to answer these questions … while raising so many more.

Allow me to present the Nodus Sector Dive GMT Pen Addict Edition.

The best part of it, though? It is also for charity.

Let’s get into it.

First off, Nodus is a small watch company based out of Los Angeles. You can think of them like small makers in the pen world, however instead of one person in a shop with a lathe and material, they are a small team, sometimes even less than five, sourcing the manufacturing of parts from Asia, and either assembling them themselves or contracting that to another factory. It is a much harder, and more expensive, market to get into due to the sourcing of parts, but the spirit of innovation and unique designs is the same as with our beloved penmakers.

Nodus is one of the best of these small makers, and does final assembly in Los Angeles with an in-house watchmaker. Additionally, Nodus does a lot of research and development themselves, and even assists other small brands with manufacturing, serving as an OEM of sorts for other brands. Much like in pens, the ethos of community is strong.

This model is the “Sector Dive GMT,” which is something new in Nodus’ line, and only offered currently in another limited edition with a watch podcast. “Sector” is a range of watches in the Nodus lineup which share a similar case shape. “Dive” refers to a dive watch, which comes with qualities of high resistance to water (this is rated up to 100M of depth, or 328 freedom units), along with a rotating bezel for timing the minute duration of events (for diving it would be things like time spent diving, or decompression stops while surfacing). GMT refers to this watch's ability to track a second time zone via a hand that can be independently set to a second hour using the 24-hour scale on the outside of the dial.

See the video below for a bit more on how these functions work!

So beyond the TPA inspired color scheme, and bezel design based on the Pen Addict Members Poker Chip, there are a few other unique things about this watch, starting with that bezel. As referenced in the video, it is a countdown bezel, while bezels on dive watches are “count up” or “elapsed time.” The difference is in what direction the numbers go around the bezel and when you set it are you counting down to zero or counting up to the number of minutes until the event.

For us folks using a dive watch to time our dinner in the oven, a countdown is much more useful than trying to remember to take the roast out of the oven after 25 minutes. Better to set the bezel at 25 and wait for it to get to zero.

For the people who want to know how it might wear, the pictures are all on my own wrist (measuring 6.5 inches around, on the smaller size for the average men’s wrist), and the dimensions are (in millimeters because why not mix units?):

Diameter: 38mm

Thickness: 12.7mm

Lug to Lug (from the top to bottom): 47.1mm

Lug width (for changing straps): 20mm

Weight on Bracelet: 151 grams

Weight of watch head only: 67 grams

What all of that means is that it is a watch that is sized right down the middle and should wear well on wrists of all sizes.

Also, this watch is powered by a Seiko NH34 automatic movement. This means there is no $15 battery change at your mall jewelry kiosk, it is powered by wearing it on your wrist which winds up a spring. This does mean that if not worn regularly, that spring will wind down and your watch will stop (around a day or two depending on how often and for how long it is worn). However it will spring back to life when picked up and given a light shake. You will have to reset the time, though. You can also keep it wound up if not regularly worn by unscrewing the crown and gently winding the crown forward between 5 and 10 times.

Now that I have explained the watch and why it is awesome, let’s talk about why you should buy it!

First off, this watch was a collaborative design between Wesley Kwok of Nodus and the denizens of the #watches Pen Addict Slack channel. There were many spirited conversations about colors, design choices, and what was and was not possible. In the end, we have created something quite different to the normal Sector Dive, embodying the deep nerdery of watch and pen lovers.

Second, this watch is for charity! Of the retail price of $475, Nodus will donate $50 per watch to The Pen Addict and Relay FM’s charity of choice: St. Jude’s Children Hospital.

On a personal level, this is also wonderful as I was living in Memphis (right across the street from some of the housing that families would stay at while their children were receiving treatment) when I fell deep into the TPA community, and even more so watches thanks to Slack. St. Jude was also my first half-marathon, run in December 2019, and it was an amazing experience when the course took us through the campus and many patients lined the route to cheer the thousands of runners on.

And I let me pledge here that if we can sell 100 or more of these watches … I’m going to go back to Memphis and attempt my first FULL marathon.

So why should you buy this watch? 1) It’s cool, 2) it’s for charity, 3) did I mention how cool it is? I MEAN LOOK AT THAT ORANGE!!!! 4) force me to run 26.2 miles for even more charity.

The watch will go up for presale March 13th and close on March 27th, with you paying half up-front, and half when it is ready to ship in August.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or Nodus.

Order yours here.