History of OMAS

OMAS was founded in 1925 in Bologna by Armando Simoni, but it was from 1919 that Simoni, just married, had opened a workshop in Via S. Vitale where he produced film reels and mechanisms for safety pens. Briefly, the workshop began to produce pieces and parts for fountain pens of the leading companies. Having obtained considerable success, customer demand grew, and Simoni started expanding the company and also began to produce whole pens. These early models are hard rubber lever filler or safety pens, made as a clear imitation of the Waterman models.

It was only in 1925, after having completed the construction of its factory in Via degli Orbi, that "Officine Meccaniche Armando Simoni" was created, whose acronym, OMAS, would become the brand used for its pens.

The first relevant model produced by OMAS was the "penna del dottore", patented in 1927, an hard rubber lever filler model with a compartment located inside the barrel of the pen that contained in addition to the sac and the lever mechanism, a thermometer. The same year, Simoni patented the metal joint used for the construction of the OMAS desk pens, for which the company became one of the leading Italian manufacturers.

The initial OMAS production is characterised by various flat top button filler models, clear imitations of the Parker Duofold. However, some of these models were characterised by original technical solutions, as for the second version of the "penna del dottore" in which again the thermometer was hosted within the body of the pen, or as for the "penna del calligrafo", which was equipped with a special section that could be easily unscrewed, allowing for an easy exchange of the nib type, and directed towards calligraphers.

OMAS was amongst the first Italian companies to switch to celluloid in the late '20s or early '30s, producing fountain pens in classic colours like green jade or lapis lazuli and also some interesting variations of marbled colours. At about this time production began of the Minerva branded pens, the only real OMAS sub-brand, dedicated to the manufacture of second-tier pens, but of excellent excellent quality.

The real turning point in OMAS production happened in 1932, when it introduced, what is was for several decades, one of the top models of the company, the OMAS Extra, made of faceted celluloid, a lever filler model with a very large cap band, decorated with a greek motif. The pen was produced in four different sizes and launched with a very extensive advertising campaign.

Although the OMAS Extra is very similar to the Doric, introduced a few months earlier, the question whether it is an imitation is still controversial, since the elapsed time is rather short. The OMAS fans argue that, given the short time between the release of the two pens, it would not have been possible to create production capability if the OMAS Extra had been a Doric imitation, but there is no information to support this statement while there are ample confirmation for the OMAS tendency to imitate American models. Regardless of whether it can be considered an imitation or not, the OMAS Extra, for its quality of materials and workmanship, can be considered of equivalent, if not higher, quality than the model from which it may have been inspired. The pen also had a huge success and remained in production until 1946, albeit with minor stylistic changes, such as creating a smooth version and the transition to a decorative three-ring instead of the greek motif band.

In 1936, a new model, the Lucens, was patented and launched, using a new type of filling system called "stantuffo tuffante". In fact, the mechanism is almost the same of the one used 15 years before by Dunn, but it is not possible to determine whether it is a copy or an independent realisation. Nevertheless, the Lucens constitutes one of the most beautiful fountain pens ever created, in particular for the beauty of its celluloids with transparent sections for viewing the ink level.

Lucens and Extra Lucens Pens from the 1930s / 40s

Made initially only in the smooth round version, the initial Lucens was joined by the Extra Lucens, having a faceted body like the Extra but still using the "stantuffo tuffante" filling system.

In 1938, the wheel clip was replaced by an arrow shaped clip, a clear imitation of the one introduced by Parker with the Vacumatic. The imitation is even more evident by the presence of a arrow engraving of the nib, also identical to the Vacumatic version. Also, the greek motif band in the cap decoration was replaced by three thin rings. Despite the imitations, the Extra Lucens is a pen without a doubt superior in all aspects (technical, aesthetic and manufacturing quality) to any Vacumatic and is probably the best model ever produced by OMAS.

With the advent of World War II, some raw materials became scarce and OMAS had to resort to use steel alloy for its nibs. The company named these "Permanio", and declared that the new nibs were better than their gold versions. In fact, this kind of alloy proved to be one of the most susceptible to corrosion, so that today "Permanio" nibs are very rare and have a much higher value than their analogues in gold.

After the war, production resumed with new ogival pens and the transition to the piston filler model. In 1946, the Extra line was completely restyled - the wheel clip was maintained but three rings on the cap was now used. Also, the piston filler was adopted and a transparent section for viewing the ink level was introduced. Three sizes were maintained: small, medium and large, identified respectively with the numbers 555, 556 and 557.

In 1948, what is perhaps the most significant invention in the Italian fountain pen production was created, the OMAS 361 model. Born as a response to the success of the Parker 51 range, the originality of the pen is in the central position of the nib, mounted on the axis of the pen around which is placed an hood open by one side. Depending on which side the pen is used, when the nib is almost completely covered it will provide a rigid writing, and when it is left uncovered, it will allow for a flexible writing. It was a very functional grading system, so much so that Parker tried several times to acquire the patent (nº US-2565667) from OMAS.

The introduction of the OMAS 361 led to a series of innovations also on the stylistic side: new ogival shapes;  the cap rings were reduced to one, and the piston filler mechanism was adopted for all models (except the Extra Lucens who continued with the "stantuffo tuffante").

It should also be mentioned that two models were introduced about 1950 and remained in production for a short time, the OMAS 351 and the OMAS 352. These pens are very rare and hard to find. They have a faceted shape and use the piston filler mechanism and their barrel was made by gluing alternating sections of transparent and coloured celluloid so as to achieve a transparent tank in alternating sections.

In the same period of the OMAS 361, the ogival shape was also adopted for other models and led to the Lucens Ogiva and new versions of the old Extra model (called 555/S, 556/S and 557/S). These were celluloid made with a red or yellow transparent ink window, and there were also variants with a metal cap. The faceted forms were also kept, for both the 361 and the new Extra series with models denominated 555/F, 556/F and 557/F.

In the following years, OMAS continued with the production of various piston filler celluloid pens. The company produced new models like the VS and the CS. With the death of Armando Simoni in 1958, no more significant innovations were produced, although in the following decades the company introduced many different models, trying to chase first the low-end (or the economy) tier and the high end market.

Their last major design innovation was the 360, a fountain pen with a triangular body to maximise grip and writing comfort, launched in 1996.

The largest size pen manufactured as a non-limited edition in their most current production was the 12-faceted Paragon, the second largest being the Milord. OMAS' product range was last updated in 2005. The Milord model became the size of the pre-2005 Paragon model.

During the last twenty years, OMAS released also a large number of limited edition pens based on almost all of their designs and formats.

In 2000, the French company LVMH acquired OMAS from the heirs of Armando Simoni. It was the only writing instrument company in its suite of companies. In October 2007 the Xinyu Hengdeli Group of Hong Kong purchased 90% equity stake in OMAS. Xinyu had a strategic partnership with LVMH and planned to use OMAS for its expansion of luxury goods in the Asian market. However, the company proved to be unprofitable and in 2011 it was sold to another Chinese company, O-Luxe. O-Luxe decided to close OMAS in November 2015 and the company entered voluntary liquidation in January 2016, ceasing all production and trading.