Since 1991 the pen's streamlined polypropylene cap has had a small hole to reduce the risk of suffocation if the cap is inhaled. The Cristal ReNew included two refills that appear to be standard Cristal refills, which are identical to the B3 refill standard.

We've been using man pens all these years," and comedian Bridget Christie titling her 2013 Edinburgh festival show A Bic For Her. In early 2021 Bic introduced the Cristal ReNew (sometimes spelled “Re’New”) which is a Cristal pen with a metal body and a refillable design.

Because of the ink of the Bic pen is quite thick, it relies on gravity to ensure that the ink keeps on flowing out as it's being used.

The thick ink flows down due to capillary action from the tube inside the barrel, to feed the ball bearing, which spins freely within a brass tip. The pens' ink color has many different varieties, ranging from the 'classic' colors (blue, black, red, and green), to pink and purple.It has become the archetypal ballpoint pen and is considered ubiquitous, [1] to the extent that the Museum of Modern Art has made it a permanent part of its collection.

The streamlined caps of Bic pens are made from polypropylene (a kind of plastic), and are the same colour as the ink of the pen. Finally, if the Bic Cristal interests you from a design or historical perspective, both Philip Hensher's The Missing Inkand James Ward's The Perfection of the Paper Clipdiscuss the history and development of the Bic ballpoint pen in some detail (as well as diving deep into other aspects of stationery minutiae).There is also the Bic Cristal Vermeil, a gold-plated, metal version of the Bic released for commemorative purposes.

Sure, you'll probably lose the pen, give it away, or the plastic barrel may crack long before you use up the ink, but like the most basic woodcase pencils, sometimes you just want to get some work done with a reliable tool that presents the least amount of distraction.The BIC Cristal (stylised as BiC Cristal and also known as the Bic pen) is an inexpensive, disposable ballpoint pen mass-produced and sold by Société Bic of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France. In 1944, near the end of the Second World War, entrepreneur Marcel Bich bought a factory in Clichy, a suburb north of Paris, [2] and with business partner Edouard Buffard founded Société PPA (later Société Bic) in 1945.