Diplomat Excellence A2

While they all share the same heavy, all-metal body and legendary build quality, the difference between the Diplomat Excellence A2 models is how they deliver ink to the page. The rollerball mimics the wet, dark fountain-pen line with a simple refill and features Diplomat's incredibly satisfying "soft click" cap. The ballpoint drops the cap entirely for a twist-action mechanism, using a drier paste ink that is ready to write on any paper, anywhere. All three give you the family look, the same lacquered-metal body, the "Diplomat since 1922" barrel band, the flower-logo clip, on your desk in the writing style you want.

If you like a pen with some weight behind it, the Excellence A2 will feel right at home as an everyday writer. At about 46 grams, it is a full-metal pen with real weight in the hand, which is also part of its appeal. If you have small hands, a light grip, or write for long stretches, the A2 may feel too heavy. Try the fountain pen or rollerball unposted, because posting the roughly 18-gram cap on the back shifts the balance rearward and adds real weight.

The rollerball and ballpoint both take standard, widely-made refills rather than a proprietary Diplomat size, so you are never locked to one supplier. The rollerball uses a standard international rollerball refill. The ballpoint comes with a Diplomat EasyFlow refill installed. When it runs out, you can replace it with another EasyFlow or any Parker-style (G2) refill, which most major brands make. Keep a rollerball spare on hand, since liquid ink runs down faster than a ballpoint's oil-based refill.

You should choose extra-fine or fine if you write small or use absorbent office paper. You should choose medium for a smooth, all-purpose line, and broad if you want to bring out an ink's shading and sheen. The Excellence A2 fountain pen comes in a #6 JoWo steel nib in EF, F, M, and B, all firm and dependable rather than flexy. Western extra-fine and fine tend to run a touch broader than their Japanese equivalents, so size down if you are used to Japanese nibs.

The fountain pen's nib is smooth and consistent: clean at the start, steady through the line, and predictable from one page to the next. Skipping and hard starts are not typical, though any fountain pen can occasionally need adjustment out of the box. Keep it capped between uses, and you should not have to scribble it awake.

The fountain pen is worth the price because you're paying for the build and nib tuning, not the nib material. The A2 is a German-made, all-metal, lacquered pen, and weighs around 46 grams in the hand, with a solid metal spring clip and a cap that clicks and posts properly. The fair objection is that some gold-nib pens are priced near this level. But the Excellence A2 is not trying to win on nib material alone. It wins as a whole pen: build, balance, finish, and a steel nib that writes better than many people expect of steel.

The Diplomat Excellence A2 fountain pen uses standard international cartridges or a converter for bottled ink. No oddball cartridge size, no brand-specific trap, just the common setup most fountain pen people already know. Cartridges are the clean, quick option. The converter is for bottled ink. That is about as complicated as it needs to be.

The difference between the Diplomat Excellence A2 and the A Plus is the cap. The A2 uses a push-on snap cap with a soft-click closure, while the A Plus uses a screw cap that seals in a third of a turn. Everything else is the same pen, including the lacquered all-metal body, the solid-metal spring-loaded clip, and the same #6 JoWo nib, available from extra-fine to broad. So it comes down to cap preference: the A2's quick snap-and-post, or the A Plus's fast screw that won't work loose in a bag.

Yes, every A2 we sell is authentic, because we are an authorized Diplomat retailer rather than a marketplace reseller. That means your pen is covered by the manufacturer's warranty and handled by a real stocking pen shop if anything goes wrong, not an anonymous third-party seller. Buying from an authorized retailer is also the surest way to sidestep the counterfeit and grey-market listings that follow popular pens.