Sell Me This Pen: The BIC Cristal Story

You will almost certainly come across a BIC Crystal pen wherever you are in the world. This iconic pen is a commonplace item in every home, workplace, and educational setting. The trend has spread around the world, and it’s likely that you’ve used one of these pens at some point in your life.

BIC Cristal has sold over 100 billion pens globally since its introduction in 1950, far outpacing the sales of many other best-selling items. Even more astounding is the fact that the pen’s design has remained largely unchanged for more than 70 years while maintaining a dominant market share. With 14 million pens sold every day, this pen has made its mark on the world.

But why was the BIC Cristal so successful? How did it become so universal in use and remain up-to-date for so many decades? To understand how it was such a success internationally, we must look back to the past and trace the path of the writing instrument.

From Quills to Ballpoint Pens

Before the advent of the reliable and low-cost pens we now employ, writing instruments were a lot less convenient and costly. In the past, quills were often employed, though they were by no means ideal. They had to be constantly dipped in ink, and writing was confused and clumsy. Writing was therefore more of an art, something confined to the able few who could master the use of such an apparatus.

Then came the fountain pen, a bit more advanced design with a metal nib and a small ink reservoir. While an improvement over the quill, it had issues as well. The nib could be scratchy, and ink flow hard to control, so writing uneven. The fountain pen was also expensive, with some costing around $150 in today’s dollars.

At the time, literacy rates were low—only about 20% of people around the world could read and write. But in the 19th century, American inventor John Loud made the first one that used a ball mechanism to place ink on the paper. The concept was groundbreaking, but there was one problem. Loud’s invention worked reasonably well on harder surfaces, but it was too harsh on paper. Due to this, his pen never made it to the market.

Years passed, and while many inventors worked to create an improved ballpoint pen design, none succeeded in creating a functional and effective version—until Laszlo Biro.

How Laszlo Biro Solved the Ballpoint Problem

You know those tiny little ballpoint pens we use every day without giving them a second thought? Well, back in the day, getting ink to flow smoothly from a ball onto paper was a real challenge. If the ball fit too tightly, the ink would get stuck. If it was too loose, the ink would leak everywhere. It was one of those problems that sounded simple but was surprisingly tricky to fix.

And that’s where a man named Laszlo Biro stepped in. You might’ve heard his name before — and if not, now’s a good time. Biro figured out that the issue wasn’t just about the ball; it was also about the ink. Most pens at that time used thin, watery ink. It would leak, take forever to dry, and worst of all, soak through the paper. It also relied entirely on gravity, so depending on how you held the pen, your writing could turn out a total mess.

Biro began experimenting with oil-based inks instead. These were thicker, dried quickly, and stayed on top of the paper instead of soaking in. But while that was already a big improvement, something fascinating happened along the way. He noticed that the thicker ink didn’t just sit there — it actually pulled itself onto the ball through a phenomenon called capillary action. This is the same natural effect you see when water creeps up a paper towel or rises through a plant’s stem. In Biro’s pen, the ink would be drawn through ultra-thin channels around the ball, keeping it perfectly coated without needing gravity.

And just like that, the ballpoint pen problem was finally cracked.

BIC Cristal Design

BIC Cristal pens are so well-designed that they actually haven’t changed much at all since their introduction over 70 years ago. Let’s break down what made it so great.

To begin with, it had a hexagonal barrel, like a pencil. This stopped it from rolling off your desk and made it easy to hold. The body was made of polystyrene — hard, cheap, and transparent, so you could always see how much ink you had remaining.

A tiny hole in the barrel let air in when ink was in use to avoid a vacuum forming inside. The ink itself was formulated to work on capillary action and produce a clear, smooth line each time.

Near the tip, a tiny stainless steel ball was precisely engineered to turn easily and dispense ink evenly and to seal off the ink when not in use to avoid leakage. Even the lid doubled as a clip and was made from a shock-absorbing plastic to prevent cracking. Simple, smart, and effective.

The BIC Cristal Legacy

Marcel Bich, the man behind BIC, quickly saw the pen’s potential. Noticing that English speakers struggled with his last name, he dropped the ‘H’, and the BIC brand was born. He expanded production fast, setting up factories across the world.

By 1953, BIC was selling 40 million pens a year. People everywhere finally had an affordable, reliable pen to write with. In the decades that followed, over 100 billion BIC Cristal pens were sold, while global literacy rates soared.

Today, it’s almost impossible to imagine a world without this little pen. Its simple, flawless design stands as proof that sometimes, the simplest ideas are the ones that last forever.