UX Overkill? A Mechanical Pencil Where You Advance the Lead by Bending It

This is maybe the strangest design for a writing implement I’ve ever seen. The Side Knock Mechanical Pencil, by Japanese manufacturer Kitera, doesn’t have a clicker at the top. Instead they’ve engineered a new mechanism, where you press sideways against the barrel—as if trying to snap it in half—and that action advances the lead. (The company translates this action as a “knock.”) The question is: Why? “The lead can be extended by bending it in the middle,” reads the product copy. “Since it can be knocked from any direction (360 degrees), there is no need to change your grip on the barrel, allowing for uninterrupted writing.”That seems a long way to go for such a tiny benefit. Even stranger, they also produce a Side Knock Ballpoint Pen, which doesn’t benefit from the “uninterrupted writing” explanation. I’m guessing these utensils scratch the same itch as a fidget spinner.