About Platinum
In 1919, Shunichi Nakata founded "Nakaya Seisakusho" in Tokyo, Japan to make and sell fountain pens. In 1928, he changed the company name to Platinum Fountain Pen Co.
He pioneered catalogue ordering in Japan with the 1931 addition of Platinum's mail order system. He also imported a plastic moulding machine in 1952, the first company in the stationery industry to do so, to take a step forward in production automation. In 1953, Platinum succeeded in tipping their steel nibs with iridium.
In 1957, Platinum created a feed which controlled the ink flow automatically and introduced it in the "Honest 60" fountain pen, the first in the world to utilize a cartridge filling system. Its catchphrase was "Good bye, ink bottle."
The 18K nib was introduced in 1962, and was used on the Pocket series in 1964. Platinum launched the "knock type" (clickable) fountain pen in 1965, followed the revolutionary "Platinum Platinum" in 1967, the first fountain pen to feature a platinum nib, before Shunichi passed away in 1968.
His third son, Toshihiro, succeeded him as president of Platinum. Under him, Platinum constructed factories in Mexico (1973) and Taiwan (1974) and established a sales company in New York (1977).
1978 saw the launch of the #3776 model, named after the height of Mount Fuji, which won the "Good Design Prize" from the Japanese government.
Platinum continued its innovation with the 1980 launch of the "writing watch," a multi-pen with a digital watch on the barrel. This was followed by the 1981 launch of the "Z" multi-pen which won a prize from the New York Museum of Modern Art
For the 70th anniversary of Platinum's founding in 1989, they launched the Arabesque fountain pen, made of Platinum.
The President series was released in 1994, then the Yaku-Sugi Cedar fountain pen was released in 1997, using cedar over 3,000 years old.
The Preppy fountain pen series released in 2006, with a spring loaded inner cap creating an air tight seal that keeps the nib from drying out.
For the 90th anniversary of Platinum's founding in 2009, they launched the Higo-Zo-Gan fountain pen.
Toshihiro's son, Toshiya, took over the Company as the third president after his father's passing in 2009. He continued his father's quest to create a fountain pen that wouldn't dry out, releasing the Plaisir, a metal body fountain pen employing the same cap as the Preppy.
With the snap-on cap design improved, Platinum embarked on a mission to improve the design of screw-on caps. They analyzed the writing characteristics of some 40,000 customers across the world, and renewed all of the parts of their fountain pens to create a new #3776 model named Century to honor the upcoming 100th anniversary of the company.
The "Slip & Seal Mechanism" in the new cap prevents the ink from drying out in the pen for up to 24 months.
Platinum has continued their quest for innovation and the "ideal fountain pen", but still remains true to their roots, as evidenced by the Platinum Century Prime, based on the design of the Platinum Platinum, released to celebrate their 100-year anniversary.