The TL;DR of this review: if you’re in the market for a robust and comfortable pocket pen, Gravitas offers an excellent option. But there are a few things you should be aware of.
Let’s unpack it a little.
The Gravitas Pocket Pen has very obvious shared DNA with the rest of the Gravitas range. Conical ends, curving cap, micro-textured PVD-coated steel section, hand-tuned JoWo #6 nib, CC filler, clipless design. So if you’ve owned a recent Gravitas, you know what you’re in for. It’s available in a host of different metals and finishes: steel, skittles, brass, copper, aluminium, paisley, skulls, etc. The raw brass version I have here is 70 euros and weighs 29g uncapped, and 59g capped or posted. It’s a chonky boi.
Here are a few things you need to know.
The flat side is an elegant rollstop.
This is a smartly designed pen with neat branding, a sense of presence, and one standout design feature: a flat side, inherited from some older Gravitas pens.
Not only does it look really cool, it’s an effective way to add a rollstop to the pen without a clip or protrusion that could snag on things.
It’s smaller than a Sport, not as small as a P6.
Capped, the Gravitas is noticeably longer and wider than the Schon Pocket 6, and more compact than the usual Kaweco Sport.
Uncapped, the story is similar.
This is great because you can squeeze a Kaweco mini converter in, albeit not at full extension.
But if you’re prioritising size to sneak a pocket pen into your jeans, every millimeter matters. And…
The ends are pointy.
I’ve commented this about every Gravitas pen — those conical ends are sharp. Not a huge deal when you’re using a full-size pen in a case, but when the pen is in your pocket, it can jab or speed up wear through your pockets, as well as scratching other items.
If you try to use the Gravitas pocket unposted, you’ll find it just a bit too short — and the sharp end may come into play too!
So I suggest you post the pen to use, which brings us to the next point…
Posting is through friction and feels a bit rough.
Some pocket pens have plastic cap liners to cushion the cap when you post (Kaweco Sport, Montegrappa Gnomo), some have threads to screw the cap on the rear (Kaweco Liliput, P6, Elbwood Pocketmaster). The Gravitas has neither.
You push the metal cap on to the metal barrel and rely on friction to hold it in place. I’m not so worried about scratching the barrel or damaging the threads, but I don’t like the sound or feeling of scraping the cap on to the back of the pen.
But when posted, you do end up with a large and heavy pen, suited to long writing sessions, and helped by the fact that…
The section is the best you’ll find on a pocket pen.
As I’ve written before, Gravitas has really nailed the section. It’s a beautiful graceful shape, it’s long, and the micro texture makes for an incredible grip. There really is no better section out there for a pocket pen.
The last word
As with all Gravitas pens, the machining is lovely, the threads are great, execution overall is flawless. The nib on this pen wrote perfectly out of the box. I have no hesitation about recommending Gravitas’s products.
As a pocket pen this is a distinctive design. Features like the large section and the flat side stand out from the competition. For me if Gravitas could dome the conical ends and insert a plastic buffer into the cap to help with posting, I’d be a very happy chappy.
I was sent this pen by Gravitas for review. You can get yours here.
To the point review. The photos, especially the one of holding the pen unposted, anwers more questions than any descriptive writing. I was about to go for the Gravitas Pocket, but I feel that ‘must post’ for this heavy a pen would be bit tiring for long(ish) writing sessions. I’ll go for the Sentry instead, I guess.