--- title: "BIC History: Marcel Bich, Clichy and the Cristal" canonical: "https://stationerytimes.com/stories/bic-history/" description: "Who invented the BIC pen, from BIC's French records: Marcel Bich's Clichy parts firm of 1944, the December 1950 Cristal, Société BIC in 1953 and BIC today." category: "Stories" published: 2026-10-22 updated: 2026-10-22 author: "Ellis Penhale" publisher: "Stationery Times" sources: 6 organizations: - name: "Société BIC" country: "France" brands: ["BIC"] source: "https://mediabic.bic.com/image/upload/v1774520323/strapi-v5/20260326_BIC_DEU_2025_MEL_FR_1905c2119d.pdf" - name: "Rocketbook" country: "United States" founded: "2014" parent: "Société BIC" parent_since: "2020-12-15" brands: ["Rocketbook"] source: "https://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2020/12/15/2145629/0/en/BIC-Closing-of-the-Rocketbook-acquisition.html" --- # BIC History: Marcel Bich, Clichy and the Cristal > Marcel Bich created the BIC pen. He bought the rights to László Bíró's ballpoint patent, perfected the ball and ink with Swiss watchmakers' help and launched the BIC Cristal at his Clichy factory near Paris in December 1950, at 0.50 French francs. Bíró invented the ballpoint; Bich made it cheap and reliable. - URL: https://stationerytimes.com/stories/bic-history/ - Category: Stories - Author: Ellis Penhale - Published: 2026-10-22 - Updated: 2026-10-22 ![A clear hexagonal BIC Cristal ballpoint with a blue cap beside a timeline from 1940 to 2030: Clichy 1944, Cristal December 1950, Société BIC 1953, Paris listing 1972, MoMA 2001 and Rocketbook 2020](https://stationerytimes.com/images/raster/bic-history-16x9.png) *Six dates in BIC's history, from Marcel Bich's Clichy parts workshop to Rocketbook, as BIC's French records give them.* Original drawing (SVG): . Drawings © 2026 Stationery Times, reusable with credit under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ## Key takeaways - Marcel Bich, born in Turin in 1914, bought a factory in Clichy and teamed up with Édouard Buffard to make writing-instrument parts; BIC's 2025 registration document dates this to 1944, its Cristal press kit to 1945. - The Cristal went on sale in December 1950 at 0.50 French francs and sold 10,000 pens a day in its first year, according to BIC's 75th-anniversary press kit. - Société BIC was created in 1953, launched the retractable M10 in 1956, entered North America in 1958 by buying the Waterman Pen Company and listed in Paris in 1972. - BIC reported 2025 sales of 2.09 billion euros (about US$2.34 billion) and says it sells 26 million products a day in more than 160 countries. - The Bich family held 46% of BIC's shares and 60% of its votes at December 31, 2025; Édouard Bich chairs the board and Rob Versloot is chief executive. The BIC Cristal is one of the most familiar objects in the world, and BIC is still run with its founding family in control. We read BIC's French sources first: its 2025 universal registration document, its French-language history, and its press kit for the Cristal's 75th anniversary, translated by us. ## Who invented the BIC pen? **Marcel Bich invented the BIC pen: he took László Bíró's ballpoint, whose patent he bought, and turned it into the cheap, reliable BIC Cristal, launched at his Clichy factory in December 1950.** BIC's registration document calls the 1950 "pointe BIC" a revolutionary version of the pen invented by the Hungarian László Bíró. So the ballpoint itself was Bíró's idea; the BIC brand, the Cristal and the mass production that made it affordable were Bich's. His partner from the start was Édouard Buffard. ## BIC timeline: 1944 to 2024 **BIC's history runs from a parts workshop near Paris to a listed group selling pens, lighters and razors in more than 160 countries.** Dates are from BIC's French history pages and its 2025 registration document. | Date | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1944 | Marcel Bich buys a factory in Clichy and joins Édouard Buffard in a writing-instrument parts business | BIC registration document | | December 1950 | BIC Cristal launched at Clichy, 0.50 French francs | BIC press kit | | 1952 | Raymond Savignac's poster "Elle court, elle court, la pointe BIC" | BIC Cristal 75 page | | 1953 | Société BIC created | BIC registration document | | 1956 | BIC M10 retractable pen | BIC history | | 1958 | Waterman Pen Company bought in the US; BIC enters North America | BIC registration document | | 1961 | BIC logo with the BIC boy by Savignac | BIC history | | 1970 | BIC 4-Color pen | BIC history | | 1972 | Société BIC listed on the Paris Bourse | BIC registration document | | 1973 | Adjustable-flame pocket lighter | BIC registration document | | 1975 | One-piece disposable razor | BIC history | | 1997 | Tipp-Ex and Sheaffer bought | BIC registration document | | 2001 | Cristal enters MoMA's permanent collection | BIC history | | December 15, 2020 | Rocketbook acquisition closed | BIC release | | 2021 | Cristal Re'New, a refillable metal version | BIC history | | 2024 | Tangle Teezer bought | BIC history | ## How did Marcel Bich start BIC? **He started as a parts maker for fountain pens in Clichy, just outside Paris, at the end of the Second World War.** BIC's press kit says Bich was born in Turin in 1914 and was about 30 when he went into business with Édouard Buffard. BIC's own dates for this differ. The 2025 registration document says that in 1944 Bich bought a factory in Clichy and joined Buffard in a parts company; the press kit says he teamed up with Buffard in 1945. Many accounts name the first company Société PPA. We didn't find that name in any BIC document we read, so we can't confirm it from a primary source. ## How was the BIC Cristal made? **Bich bought Bíró's patent, then spent several years on the ink and on the fit between the ball and the tube, bringing in Swiss watchmakers for the precision.** BIC says he was the first to use precision watchmaking tools to make pens, and that he staked the whole of the company's capital on it. The Cristal went on sale in December 1950 at the Clichy factory for 0.50 French francs, and it was refillable at first. The press kit says it sold 10,000 pens a day in its first year. It heads our list of the [best pens of all time](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/best-pens-of-all-time/). Bich spent heavily on advertising. The poster artist Raymond Savignac drew the 1952 campaign "Elle court, elle court, la pointe BIC" and later the ball-headed BIC boy. Our [BIC Cristal guide](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/bic-cristal/) covers the pen as it is sold today. ## How did BIC spread around the world? **BIC expanded country by country through the 1950s, reaching North America in 1958, and then diversified into lighters and razors in the 1970s.** Its history lists Belgium (1951), Italy (1954), Brazil (1956) and the UK (1957), and the registration document records the purchase of the Waterman Pen Company in the US in 1958. Société BIC listed in Paris in 1972. The adjustable-flame pocket lighter came in 1973 and the one-piece disposable razor in 1975, and BIC added Conté pencils (1979), Wite-Out (1992) and Tipp-Ex (1997). Our [Wite-Out EZ Correct](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/bic-wite-out-ez-correct/) guide covers one of those brands. BIC bought Sheaffer in 1997 and sold its assets to A.T. Cross in 2014. Waterman is now part of Newell Brands, as our [ownership overview](https://stationerytimes.com/stories/who-owns-which-stationery-brands/) shows; the [Parker and Newell story](https://stationerytimes.com/stories/parker-pen-history-newell/) covers that group. ## What is BIC today? **BIC is a Paris-listed group with 2025 sales of 2.09 billion euros (about US$2.34 billion), and it calls itself number two in writing instruments with about 8% of the market.** Its registration document says it sells 26 million products a day in more than 160 countries and employs more than 11,000 people. The Bich family held 46% of the shares and 60% of the votes at December 31, 2025. Bruno Bich became chairman and chief executive in 1994, and Gonzalve Bich was chief executive from 2018; today Édouard Bich chairs the board and Rob Versloot runs the company. BIC calls its stationery business Human Expression. Beyond the Cristal it includes pens and pencils such as the [Gel-ocity Quick Dry](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/bic-gel-ocity-quick-dry/) and the [Xtra-Smooth mechanical pencil](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/bic-xtra-smooth-mechanical-pencil/), and since December 2020 the reusable [Rocketbook Core](https://stationerytimes.com/guides/rocketbook-core/) notebooks. ## What couldn't we confirm? **We couldn't confirm the name Société PPA or a single founding year from BIC's own documents.** BIC's registration document and history page say 1944, and its 75th-anniversary press kit says 1945. BIC's dates for the BIC boy also differ: 1961 in its history and 1960 in its 2021 Cristal release. We give BIC's own figures for sales and market share; the widely quoted lifetime total of Cristal pens sold isn't in the BIC documents we read. ## Frequently asked questions ### Who was Marcel Bich? The founder of BIC. BIC's press kit says the 'Baron' Marcel Bich was born in Turin in 1914 and was about 30 when he went into business with Édouard Buffard making writing-instrument parts in Clichy, near Paris. He launched the BIC Cristal in December 1950. ### Did László Bíró invent the BIC pen? He invented the ballpoint the BIC is based on. BIC's 2025 registration document calls the 1950 BIC point a revolutionary version of the pen invented by the Hungarian László Bíró, and its press kit says Marcel Bich bought Bíró's patent before reworking the ink and the ball. ### Was BIC first called PPA? Many accounts say Bich and Buffard's first company was called PPA, but we didn't find that name in BIC's own documents. BIC's registration document only says Bich bought a factory in Clichy in 1944 and joined Buffard in a parts company; Société BIC was created in 1953. ### Who is the BIC boy? The ball-headed figure in BIC's logo, drawn by the poster artist Raymond Savignac. BIC's history dates the logo with the BIC boy to 1961, while its 2021 Cristal release says the figure became the brand's emblem in 1960. Savignac also made the 1952 campaign 'Elle court, elle court, la pointe BIC'. ### Does the Bich family still control BIC? Yes. BIC's 2025 registration document says the Bich family held 46% of the 40,861,314 shares and 60% of the voting rights at December 31, 2025. Édouard Bich chairs the board and Rob Versloot is chief executive. ### What else does BIC make besides pens? Lighters since 1973 and one-piece razors since 1975, and since 2024 Tangle Teezer hairbrushes. BIC's stationery side also includes Conté (bought in 1979), Wite-Out (1992), Tipp-Ex (1997) and Rocketbook (2020). ### When did BIC come to the United States? In 1958. BIC's registration document lists that year for the purchase of the Waterman Pen Company in the US, and BIC's French history says BIC entered the North American market the same year. ### Does BIC own Rocketbook? Yes. BIC closed its purchase of Rocketbook, the Boston maker of reusable notebooks, on December 15, 2020. BIC's history calls it its entry into digital writing. ## Sources - [Groupe BIC (French): Document d'enregistrement universel 2025, filed March 26, 2026 (history 1944–2016, key figures, shareholders; PDF)](https://mediabic.bic.com/image/upload/v1774520323/strapi-v5/20260326_BIC_DEU_2025_MEL_FR_1905c2119d.pdf) - [Groupe BIC (French): Notre histoire (timeline, 1944 to 2024)](https://corporate.bic.com/fr-fr/groupe/notre-histoire) - [BIC (French): Dossier de presse BIC Cristal 75 ans (press kit, 2025: Bich born 1914, Buffard 1945, December 1950 at Clichy, 0.50 franc, 10,000 a day; PDF)](https://mediabic.bic.com/image/upload/v1758021347/Press_kit_BIC_Cristal_75_ans_FR_65f6e0914e.pdf) - [Groupe BIC (French): BIC Cristal Anniversaire 75 (1944 start with Buffard, watchmaking tools, Savignac)](https://corporate.bic.com/fr-fr/bic-cristal-anniversaire-75) - [Groupe BIC (French): BIC célèbre les 70 ans de l'emblématique stylo Cristal et dévoile Re'New, April 2021](https://corporate.bic.com/fr-fr/news/bic-celebre-les-70-ans-de-l-emblematique-stylo-cristal-et-devoile-renew-un-nouveau-modele-premium-et-rechargeable-en-metal) - [Société BIC: Closing of the Rocketbook acquisition, December 15, 2020](https://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2020/12/15/2145629/0/en/BIC-Closing-of-the-Rocketbook-acquisition.html)