Currently, in fountain pens

Lately I've been weighing fountain pen purchases because I have this "grail" pen in mind:

It's the Monoc Evo pen from Schon Designs. The brand has a lot of cool products, including the Monoc nib, a conical nib machined from a single piece of titanium. The Monoc Evo takes it further and integrates the nib into a full pen body:

The Monoc Evo not only features an integrated titanium nib with an Ultem feed, but it also utilizes a piston fill mechanism which was entirely designed, engineered, and manufactured in-house. 

(from the Schon Design product page)

I think it's so cool that this maker innovates with their designs. It looks different from a lot of the fountain pens out there. I do have a little concern that the Monoc nib is maybe wider/wetter than I prefer for my small handwriting, but I might be able to ask them to customize the grind to be a bit finer. I can also have a nib specialist work on it, if needed. Also, I'm generally more of a cartridge converter pen person because I like to switch out inks more often. But I'm somewhat warming up to piston fillers, as long as I use inks that I love and don't mind having a pen inked up with them for months, since that's how long it takes me to write piston fillers dry.

The big thing is that it's a $1400 pen for the blue guilloche model, oof. That'll be the most I will have spent on fountain pens to date, whenever I spring for it, which seems daunting. But its price also makes me rethink buying other pens, even inexpensive ones, because I keep thinking I should put that money towards the Evo. So I'm inadvertently on more of a low-buy so far this year. (I've sort of splurged on some inks recently after a being on a low-buy for them as well, but I think my general feeling of wanting to curb my ink library has kept me more in check this year.)

There is another pen that is expensive, and a kind of grail pen, but sort of more "attainable" at ~$700, the newest Pelikan M600 Art Series Georg Tippel:

I have the first Pelikan M600 Art series pen, the Glauco Cambon.

I think it's nice, and though the design is really unique, especially in person (obviously the video still isn't in person for you, but it gives you a little better idea of the depth of the design), I admit that I don't have a strong attraction to it. However, the brown, floral, art deco-y design of the Georg Tippel is definitely more my style. I happened to sell my Glauco Cambon, so I have a chunk of change to put towards the Georg Tippel, or the Monoc Evo... Argh! 😅

I might just try to hold out for the Monoc Evo because its nib is completely different from anything in my collection, whereas the Pelikan's EF nib is nice, but it is a standard nib and still kinda thick for my preferences. It's entirely possible that if I want the Pelikan M600 Georg Tippel in the future, someone might have one they would sell. One of the nice things about this hobby is that the secondhand market is active, and people are always changing up their collections for whatever reasons. It's really hard for me to let go of the desire to buy both, but budgetarily it just doesn't fly. 😮‍💨

Anyway, these are the two pens that have been occupying my fountain pen hobby brain the most right now. There are other pens out there that I admire, but again, the Monoc Evo overshadows them generally. 😅 Someday...