Review: Aqua Lockwood

In September I finally received the Aqua Lockwood that I had preordered earlier in the year. I would have received it sooner but since I was about to travel when I got the message that they had them in stock, I asked them (them being Presse und Tabakshop – a German Stationery shop) to hold one for me to then ship out once I had returned from my holiday.

So it arrived around the middle of September and a couple of weeks after that I moved in. The leather is really soft and gorgeous, but also has grains! The colour so summery! 🙂 People have been comparing the leather to the Malden, but it rather reminds me of my Brown Holborn. Structured, smooth, with natural grain.

 

What appealed to me were the many pockets that the Lockwood has. This one in the front reminds me of the Holborn zip personal Filofax. I love that pocket in the front as it’s useful when you want have something readily available without having to open up the planner. Think shipping list or return receipts.

The left hand side has 4 vertical credit card slots, and one long slip pocket. Similar to the Malden but without the zipped pocket.   

 

 

 

 

 

The left hand side has a pocket configuration that is not so common in Filofaxes. I have only seen this type of pocket configuration in the Filofax Regency (pictured along side). The standard custom Van der Spek comes with this pocket configuration on the left hand side, unless you request for something else.

 

 

 

 

 

At the back of the planner is a deep, full length zipped pocket. Unfortunately it is not gusseted, so it’s a bit snug. I am hoping over time it will become loose from the leather stretching. The pen look is full elastic and stitched on at the very edge of the planner instead of the inside like we see in most planners. Now, I like it when the pen loop is further out because that means that the pen won’t squash any side tabs. However, I wish they had made it a half elastic and half leather pen loop. The black elastic pen loop cheapens the look of the planner, and isn’t aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. 

On top of that, the position of the pen loop in the Lockwood becomes inconvenient instead of useful because the strap is really too short!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we all know the Malden strap is extremely long, I also decided to compare it to the Regency. The difference is huge compared to the Malden of course, but there is still a little bit of a difference between the Malden and the Regency. And that small difference really does make…well, a difference! 

If you saw my recent set up, you will know that I don’t have a lot in my planner right now. I took out a lot of sections. This is how it looks from the side with and without something in the pen loop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you may notice, the planner gets narrow towards the middle where the strap is. This is because the small strap squeezes the planner in the middle. It has become easier to close the planner longer I use it, probably because it is a leather planner and the leather has perhaps stretched a little bit. But when you first get it, you definitely have to make an effort to close it. This oversight is a real pity! You would think that Filofax would be more aware of this since they had a similar situation with the first batch of the Original Filofax line.

Pros:

• Lovely leather
• Nice colour – finally you can get a leather aqua Filofax without paying an arm for the aqua Malden 😉
• Inner pocket layout – I prefer my credit card slots horizontal but this is ok as well
• Slip pocket in the front
• Zip pocket in the back
• Elastic pen loop to fit bigger pens
• Easily lays flat

Cons:

• Zip pocket is not gusseted
• Strap is too short
• Elastic pen loop! Wish they had made it half leather or even tried to match the colour of the elastic to the planner
• Position of the pen loop – as I said, normally I like this position, but with the strap being too short, it just gets in the way of closing the planner when there is a pen/ pencil inside.

In conclusion, I’m not quite sure what to think of this planner! I love the layout of the planner, but there are some small details that make some of the things useless! But I’m not ready to give up on it yet. I really hope that as the leather ages and becomes more supple, some of the issues will sort itself out. I don’t really tend to stuff my planners, so I can definitely still use it. But for those that do love to put a lot on their rings, then perhaps this is not the planner for you, unless Filofax realises their mistake and come out with another batch with longer straps. We can still hope! 😉 So for now, I will keep this in my collection. I will also try to make a video review of this so stay tuned 🙂

‘Till next time,

P