Photo: Pentel
Pentel engineered the loudest thing about a ballpoint — its click — down by two-thirds on its own figures, then wrapped the result in leather grain and gold foil.
Verdict
| What it is | Pentel Calme Leather Touch Collection — the limited leather-tone run of Pentel's quiet-knock oil ballpoint (on sale since Dec 2021). Featured: the 3-colour 0.5mm |
| Price | ¥550 — Pentel, Japan, checked Tue Nov 10, 2026 (singles ¥330; 3-pen sets ¥990) |
| Availability | Japan only; releases Wed Nov 11, 2026 at stationery retailers across Japan |
| The angle | A ¥550 pen whose engineering went into silence — two different quiet-knock mechanisms across the range |
| Verdict | The rare limited edition where the mechanism is the point and the colourway is the excuse. |
What it is
Start with the sound. The knock of a retractable ballpoint is the loudest event in a quiet room, and the Calme — Pentel's quiet-knock oil ballpoint, on sale since December 2021 — was designed around removing it. Pentel's figure is a 66% reduction in knock sound pressure against its own conventional pen, printed here as what it is: the maker's own comparison, not an independent measurement. The engineering underneath it differs by version. On the single-colour pen, a slider catches the rotating cam from above and below so the moving parts never collide, and the knock feel itself is softened; the multi-function versions use a different quiet design to the same end.
The line was designed by Kazushige Miyake of miyake design, the Tokyo studio Pentel itself credits — MUJI among its clients. The Leather Touch Collection is the limited run: colours taken from leather goods — matte dark brown, greige, mustard and navy — with the brand's logo in gold foil and, on the singles, a thin gold ring at the centre of the barrel. The long grip is finished in a leather grain made with the shibo embossing technique used on camera grips, a texture chosen to feel familiar in the hand. The ink is oil-based, in the dense-colour Calme formulation.
The featured pen is the 3-colour 0.5mm at ¥550. Below it, the singles run ¥330 across 0.5mm and 0.7mm; above it, two 3-pen sets run ¥990 — and the sets matter, because each hides a colour sold no other way: black in one, dark green in the other.
Why it matters
Most limited stationery is a colour story laid over an unchanged pen. The Calme inverts the order — the mechanism is the design, and the colourway is the excuse to look at it. Our judgement is that the Leather Touch treatment holds up because it extends the same thinking to the hand: a grip texture borrowed from camera bodies, colours borrowed from the leather goods the pen will share a bag with. Nothing about the range pretends to be luxury; at ¥330 to ¥990 these are mass-market prices. What they buy is a pen engineered, seriously, in the one dimension everyone in the room notices and nobody specifies: how much noise it makes.
Specs
| Brand | Pentel |
| Line | Calme — quiet-knock oil ballpoint, on sale since Dec 2021; Leather Touch Collection, limited design run |
| Featured model | 3-colour ballpoint 0.5mm (BXAC35LL1–4) |
| Also in the run | Single-colour 0.5mm (BXA105LL1–4-A); single-colour 0.7mm (BXA107LL1–2-A, dark brown and greige only); 3-pen sets (BXA105LA-3ST / BXA105LB-3ST) |
| Colours | Dark brown, greige, mustard, navy; black and dark green available only in the 3-pen sets |
| Mechanism | Quiet knock — knock sound pressure reduced 66% against Pentel's own conventional pen (maker's figure); different quiet designs for the single-colour and multi-function versions |
| Grip | Long grip in a leather-grain finish (shibo embossing, as used on camera grips) |
| Ink | Oil-based |
| Designer | Kazushige Miyake — miyake design |
| Prices (tax incl.) | Single-colour ¥330 · 3-colour ¥550 · 3-pen set ¥990 |
What to check before buying
- Japan only. Pentel publishes no US release and no dollar price for the Calme — buying one means a Japanese stationery retailer after the Nov 11 release, or a proxy.
- The 66% is Pentel's number. A sound-pressure comparison against Pentel's own conventional pen: specific and technical, but the maker's own. No independent measurement has been published.
- Not every colour comes every way. The 0.7mm single exists only in dark brown and greige, and black and dark green are set-only — a black single comes in a ¥990 three-pen set or not at all.
Price record
| Price | ¥550 (featured 3-colour; singles ¥330; 3-pen sets ¥990 — all tax incl.) |
| Source | Pentel, Japan (pentel.co.jp), checked Tue Nov 10, 2026 |
| Featured | Site-first, Tue Nov 10, 2026 — the Instagram post follows as part of a combined Writing Tools carousel, Fri Nov 13 |
Want one?
- In the shop: browse current stock — one-off pieces, and they turn over fast.
- Hunting one? Join the Want List — tell us the maker and the budget; pieces like this surface in our trawl most weeks.
- This one: at the source — See it at Pentel. Not our listing. See Disclosure.
Related picks
- Pilot Capless Stripe — a fountain pen with no cap to lose, at ¥52,800
- uniball ZENTO 3 Flow — a ballpoint that treats the grip as engineering, at ¥2,530
- rOtring 600 3-in-1 — three tools in the drafting barrel, at $54
Spotted, not sold by us — this pen lives at Pentel's own site and in stationery shops across Japan. Prices are a snapshot from when we spotted it. Disclosure
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Shop the pick
Pentel Calme 3-Colour Ballpoint — Leather Touch Collection
¥550 — Pentel, Japan, checked Tue Nov 10, 2026 (singles ¥330; 3-pen sets ¥990)
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