Introduced in 1950 and still made on machinery Bic engineers designed themselves, the Cristal Original is the best-selling ballpoint pen in the world — simple enough to be in MoMA's permanent design collection, disposable enough that nobody thinks twice about losing one. A hexagonal barrel, borrowed from the wooden pencil, keeps it from rolling off a desk.

A tungsten carbide ball and Bic's proprietary ink deliver even, reliable flow across roughly 3km of writing per pen, and a translucent barrel shows exactly how much ink is left — no guessing when it's about to run dry.