Australian designer Marc Newson has created a fountain pen with an exclusive retractable nib for French fashion house Hermès.

Newson collaborated with Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas to design the brand’s first pen.

The fountain pen in anodized aluminum with a brushed stainless steel underside, iridium point, and an 10-carat white gold nib. Comes with a chevron canvas pouch containing the user guide, a black cartridge and an ink pump in an orange box.

The Nautilus pen is named after Captain Nemo’s submarine from the 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by French writer Jules Verne, admired by both Newson and Dumas.

The name also references a marine animal that hides within a smooth shell, which Newson compares to the design of the pen:

“Its spare, clean lines make it mysterious looking, nothing about it suggests that it’s a pen,” said Newson. “It has no lid, no ring, no clip.”

Nautilus is also available as a ballpoint version, with an ebony, red or blue body.

Sold in a selection of stores worldwide, with the fountain pen retailing for $1,650 and the ballpoint pen for $1,350.

designer: marc newson
producer: hermes
period: 2014