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11 March 2012

Winchester vs Malden - Design Comparison

We hear a lot of comments about 'Vintage' Filofax organisers and how their design can't be equalled... ok may be that is going too far, but you get the idea. So I thought in one of my [many] idol moments, let's compare say a Malden and my 'old' Winchester in terms of design qualities and see how they compare.

So a recap for those that don't know the history of my old black Winchester personal organiser. I bought it in late 1986, so it is over 25 years old now. Yes it is showing some sign of use in that period, it has not been sat on a shelf or left in a box. It was in daily use for the first 6-7 years of its life and then occasional use from then on, but it went into retirement for a few years. Some of the inserts I have date back to the late 80's so that will prove the longevity of paper if stored correctly.

It was brought back in to full use in 2005 when my new employer at the time did not allow personal electronic devices in the office due to security issues (enough said on that one!) So no mobile phones, PDA's (Psion, Palm, iPaqs... iPhones etc). So a paper solution seemed appropriate.

In 2006 I then bought my A5 Finsbury which was easier to print off calendars and other information sheets I needed access to. This lead me creating some of my own inserts, I put these on DiY Planner, then I discovered by chance Philofaxy in early 2008, in June 2009 I became a full time contributor to Philofaxy and the rest as they say is history!

My particular Winchester has 7/8" rings 23mm in metric terms, they came in bigger sizes too. I think the design is classic in terms of its simplicity nothing too fancy it just does the job it is intended to do.


So here are the two 'brothers' or is it 'Father and Son' along side each other. As you can see the Malden has a much broader clasp, the one on the Winchester is a little flimsy in this area and if the leather hasn't been cared for and allowed to dry out too much they can crack or worse become detached completely.

As you might also notice the plastic cap is missing on my Winchester press-stud, one of the other failings of this design I guess. I must get around to putting a dab of enamel paint on it.

The Malden is fractionally bigger than the Winchester in height and width.


The rear of the covers show a similar method of securing the clasp to the cover, although the Malden appears to be stitched to a large pad which is then in turn stitched to the cover. I suppose this method might be easier to repair in say 20 years time...

The Malden also has a stitched beading around the outer edge of the cover, where as the Winchester is just stitched around the whole of the outer edge close to the edge of the adjoining leather. As a comparison the Chameleon uses this same method of construction as the Winchester.


Many of you will be familiar with the internal layout and construction of the Malden, so I won't go in to too much detail in this post. As you can see it has a multitude of card pockets. It also has a full height zip pocket. The zipper it self can add unwanted bulk/lumpiness to the front cover. In the back cover there is a notepad slot and a full height pocket as well.  And yes as you can see it lays flat. This particular Malden I have owned for nearly 12 months.

Moving now to the Winchester.


No zips, only leather flaps which also serve as additional protection for the ring mechanism. There is an id card slot. No credit card slots as such, but this was designed and sold in an era before credit cards were in extensive use! Just a single leather pen loop as well.



Under the front cover flap is access to the ID card window slot and another pocket as well as a full height pocket.  The table is a 1960's G-Plan nest of tables!


In the back cover there is a gusseted pocket which is a nice feature, I've put my reading glasses in to the pocket to show it expanded without my hand in the photo...


This final photo shows how flexible the two organisers are when empty.  The Malden appears to use thicker leather hence it is more 'rounded' appearance around the ring mechanism compared to the Winchester which is quite angular I suppose.

If I was redesigning the Malden I would include the leather flaps to cover the full height pocket openings and do away with the zip pocket, mainly due to the long term life of a zipper. May be I would also add a gusseted pocket like on the Winchester. And my final wish would be for a larger ring version of the Malden with say 30 mm rings. But I would also suggest a compact version as well for the slimmer Filofax users too.

What my Malden will look like in 25 years time... is anyone's guess. It is in daily use these days, it gets occasional rest when I swap in to the Cuban Zip which I like because of the bigger rings. 

If you have any questions about the Winchester pop them in to the comments and I will do my best to answer them, but I wouldn't call myself a Winchester expert as such.

21 comments:

  1. Your Winchester is exactly as old as me :)
    Thanks for this post, it's great and i love all the pics!

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    1. Scary thought... my Filofax being as old as some of our readers... I feel old!! I have my diary inserts from when my son was born back in 1987!

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  2. That was great! I really enjoyed it and so glad you did this because every once in a while one comes up for sale with no details and one bad picture - this is so helpful!
    Tracy

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    1. It's the only 'old' one I own although my wife Alison (the hand!) has one of similar age, and I also have a non-leather one of similar vintage. But I know the Winchester is very popular and at the time when I bought it it seemed a little bit more special than the others for sale.

      I hope it helps people if they are considering buying one off of Ebay.

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    2. My old one, bought in 1985 had no name. Just said Filofax Made in England. :) I used it for about 15 years and now cannot find it!

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  3. I briefly had a Winchester, and of course I have lots of Maldens :D I didn't really like the Winchester in comparison with my Maldens, I think because I love the soft and supple leather of my Maldens, and the Winchester's leather is so hard. But I can see why it was so popular in the 1980s, and I love how they had so many different versions- not just different colours, but different leathers- cow leather, even pigskin!! I sold mine on ebay (for a profit :D )

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    1. I can't believe they had it in pigskin! Very interesting post nevertheless :)

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  4. Having hacked apart a number of filofaxes for various reasons(!), I just wanted to comment that the Malden isn't made of thicker leather but, like most of the current filofaxes, made of thinnish leather sandwiching cardboard. That's probably not true of the Winchester! I have sometimes ripped out parts of the inner cardboard in order to make the filofax thinner and more flexible.

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    1. I suspected as much but wasn't sure, and wasn't brave enough to check! Thanks!

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    2. I unfortunately scraped the top corner of my crimson Malden, and yes it is a cardboardy-substance underneath. But still, it's so supple!!

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    3. My goodness, TPS. If you can go through the "leather" on a Malden in one scrape, I think I'm going to stick to the traditional Filofaxes of yesteryear.

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    4. Oh no Neil, it wasn't just a little scrape, it got dragged across the ground under the wheel of my suitcase for a few metres!! Normally it holds up really well!

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    5. I understand, TPS, thankyou for explaining.

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  5. Your Winchester has held up really nicely! I will need to keep an eye out for one of those, preferably one of the ones with the 30mm rings.

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  6. Thank you for a wonderful comparison, Steve. I hope that my Siena will hold up that well that long. I got my first FF in the late 80s too, but like a few mentioning here, I also do not remember what model it was and where it is now. There was this electronic hype/break that many have experienced, I guess. I am so glad that I have come back to FF and paper.

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  7. I would LOVE a Compact (non-zipped) Malden.

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  9. I’ve read your piece on rings replacements but thought this would be a good place to ask what rings I need to replace my identical Winchester to yours?!
    Great blog ... thank you

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  10. Hi- do you have a date for when the first 'f' appeared on the spine?

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  11. love the review

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