smythson bond street organiser

So, the Aspinal didn't work out. A Filofax is no longer in use. And I haven't migrated to Midori. Where the hell have I ended up? I know a few of you are curious.

The answer is.......

S M Y T H S O N

Whaaa? With their Bond Street organiser costing the wrong side of £200, they may seem like a pricey alternative, but nope, that doesn't have to be the case if you wait until the post-Christmas sales! I have had Smythson bookmarked for months leading to Christmas and have been lusting after one for way too long, so the sale presented me with an ideal opportunity to get the one I had been after, for a far cheaper price. In the end, I paid a similar amount to an Osterley. However, there is a notable quality and design difference between the organiser I got and the Osterley.

Look at the lovely blue hue of this card!

The organiser came with this envelope, and inside, was a piece of card with 'Smythson' imprinted on it. Ideal if the binder were to be a gift.

There is no lizard/croc print. Here is the organiser I opted for - it is made of calf leather and has a fine grainy print (finer than the Finsbury):

It is a lovely, girly, bright pink. I thought that, if I am going to be getting a Smythson binder, I want one that is something different. Not one that could be passed for another brand or one that fits in. And this one is just that - it is girly, the texture isn't overly garish and the contrast between the bright pink of the outer part of the binder and the lighter pink of the interior makes this binder what it is. 

The binder came with some dividers (three blue ones, made of lovely, thick card - at least twice as thick as Filofax dividers), clear A-Z dividers, a few sheets of address inserts (on their lovely blue paper) and also some lined notepaper (again, on the blue paper). Because this was all that was included, and because I love the blue notepaper, I haven't done a pen test on the paper yet as I'm one of those who saves luxurious stationery for when I have a better use for it. Once I pluck up the courage, there will be a pen test, I promise!

The left hand side of the binder has a two slip pockets (one, approximately, the size of a credit card; and the other being a smaller secretarial pocket, all within a larger secretarial pocket.

There is also a pencil holder for the lovely 'Smythson gilded pencil' that came with the binder. It takes Yard-o-Led refills.

Then, the right hand side is another secretarial pocket and a pen loop.

This pen loop can hold quite a large pen, but I don't want to stretch it so I haven't tried yet. It holds my Muji gels and Erasables fine and it also holds my thicker Pentel Energel pens ok too. 

At the bottom right is the Smythson gold-coloured text stamp:

It says: 'Est 1887 Smythson of Bond St'

The gold ring mechanism:

In the middle of this mechanism is the word 'Smythson'.

Finally, the clasp has a quirk about it. It has two buttons - one if the binder is stuffed full and one if it isn't quite so stuffed; almost like a belt. I love this quirk, though I have experimented with the outer popper button to see how full it has to be in order for it to be in use but I haven't managed to fill the organiser enough for that yet.

The binder doesn't quite lie flat yet, but with a bit of use, it lies flat enough for my liking. I love the colour contrast (I didn't at first! But it grew on me) and the gold detailing. And the quality really is fantastic - but you'd expect that with an RRP of what it had (a lady never tells).

Having not used a personal sized organiser for a long time (and this one appears to have 23mm rings - I did a quick measurement), it might take me a while to figure out what set-up I require.

Ironically, although I am unveiling this binder today, it developed ring problems yesterday! The ring's don't close properly now (there is a gap of about 0.5cm between each of the six rings!) and I have contacted customer services about this. This is an unnatural thing to happen to such a new binder so I am quite shocked and hopefully it will be sorted soon as I do love this binder.

What are your thoughts? Is the pink too bright for you? Do the gold rings tickle your pickle? Does it look too impractical (only one proper card slot!)? Do you know of any other Smythson binder users? I did a pretty thorough Google and I couldn't find anyone, blogger or otherwise! My next goal now is to save up for a set of Smythson diary refills for 2014 - I have a whole year so it should be do-able!