If someone mentions the brand Montblanc, it’s likely the first thing that comes to mind is pens. And one pen in particular. A cigar-shaped fountain pen with a deep-black sheen, a satisfying weightlessness and a stylised six-pointed snowcap logo on its lid. A sign of good taste and a certain gravitas for anyone lucky enough to own one.

This is its Meisterstück 149 – German for “masterpiece” – the writing instrument that celebrates its 100th birthday next year, and the totemic object on which Montblanc built its name.

Except Montblanc doesn’t just make pens. It has diversified its portfolio to include luggage, watches, jewellery, headphones, fragrances, phone cases, sunglasses and, indeed, portfolios. (It has been making small leather goods since 1926.)

Montblanc is successful with all these products – all beautifully designed. Still, a sense remains that they are slightly overshadowed by the mighty Meisterstück. Along with Bic’s ballpoint, it is the only pen to be frequently designated a “design classic” – and held in somewhat higher regard. A slight problem, albeit a nice one, if you want to be known as widely as possible as a luxury house with plenty to offer. So this year Montblanc has come up with a clever way to tie it all together. If the story all began with pens, then why not use pens – and writing – to remind people of the other great stuff you make?

To that end, Montblanc’s new campaign is called The Library Spirit, exploring what this idea might mean across different cities.

‘Libraries around the world are extraordinary destinations of consumer enlightenment where knowledge is transmitted through time and generations,’ says the brand. ‘A journey through the aisles of a library is a journey of discovery, and imagination. With every turn of the page and through every word inked on paper, literary explorers are transported into a new universe.’ In one of Montblanc’s short films based in the UK, for example, we find James Norton and Karen Elson lolling around The London Library, founded in 1841 in St James’s Square, whose original subscribers included Dickens and Darwin, with notable members numbering Virginia Woolf and Stanley Kubrick.

The promotional movie features not just a Meisterstück Around the World in 80 Days Doué Classique Fountain Pen, a special edition celebrating Jules Verne’s classic literary adventure, but a Montblanc Soft Mini Bag, inspired by the art of writing and featuring an external pen holder, as well as a Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea watch, with its etched dial pattern inspired by a valley glacier on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif.

‘The London spirit encourages us to embrace timeless classics but make them our own, repurposing them to suit our own style and subverting the unexpected,’ says Marco Tomasetta, Montblanc’s artistic director.

The story of Montblanc began in 1906 when a Berlin designer named August Eberstein, in partnership with a Hamburg banker, Alfred Nehemias, developed a range of simple-to-use pens with the ink already built in. Montblanc’s trademark was registered in 1910, inspired by the highest European mountain – symbolising the company’s high values and quality European craftsmanship. The Meisterstück was launched in 1924, and within five years Montblanc had become an internationally recognised brand.

Leather goods followed, produced to exacting standards in its workshop near Offenbach, Germany. Nowadays Montblanc’s bags and leather goods division includes duffle and tote bags, luggage, briefcases, belts, key rings, backpacks and plenty more besides.

In 1997 the brand entered the high-end watch market, establishing its own facility in Le Locle, the Swiss district noted for its links to luxury watchmaking. Its 1858 Geosphere, featuring two 3D turning globes on the watch face, with the northern hemisphere at 12 o’clock and the southern hemisphere at 6 o’clock, has been particularly well-received. All these goods share an emphasis on exceptional craftsmanship, good taste and, of course, the six-pointed snowcap logo – a reminder of Montblanc’s high values. Values that are certainly embodied by a certain pen.

But everything else it produces, too.