Pocket rocket
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s a rocket that’s really a pen! MB&F is truly the master of playful illusions. Following the HM3 Frog, a watch that looks like a, well, frog, and the adorable Sherman, a clock masquerading as a robot, is the brand’s latest functional objet d’art, the Astrograph. A collaboration with Swiss writing instrument maker Caran d’Ache, it is a pen that moonlights as a rocket, complete with a crew of a single astronaut, when off (writing) duty.
The Astrograph is a representation of MB&F’s founder, Maximilian Busser’s fascination with space travel as a child, and is a 99-component masterpiece that takes more than 500 manual processes to complete. Its development took a total of four years. Most of the fun lies in the “fuselage” of the rocket, which doubles as the pen cap. A miniature ladder leads up this fuselage to the “entry door” of the rocket which is really a lever. Push it, and three stabiliser legs are lowered so that the pen may stand upright on a desk as a rocket would on land. Manning the rocket is a rhodium-plated and magnetised astronaut, who can be attached to any part of the body of the instrument.
The Astrograph comes in a presentation box shaped like a launch pad, which completes the look should the Astrograph be used as decorative display. Three finishes are available in high gloss rhodium, ruthenium anthracite, and sand blasted matt rhodium. All three finishes come in fountain pen versions, with the latter also available as roller pens. Only 99 of each pen type are available worldwide.
