Photo via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
One example. Colors, sub-models, and production years vary; the machine you find may differ.
Olympia SM9
light, glassy, linear, precise, floating landing
The Cherry-MX-Red of the catalog: light, glassy-smooth, and linear, with a very soft landing that floats more than it cushions. The most precise of the SM family — basket shift, vault-tight — and a touch less cushioned than the SM3. Not as hushed as the Hermes, and some find it precise to the point of feeling mechanically plain.
When Olympia finally moved to basket shift, they made the SM9. The keys are lighter than the SM3 family's, the carriage glides smoothly. It's not the most exciting machine in the catalog. It plain works. The Typewriter Review writes that it has no flaws worth mentioning; it's a job, you're a writer, the SM9 is up to it.
What people say
the most practical and best-functioning postwar portable still abundant secondhand
uses Olympia portables among his daily-driver typewriters
— Tom Hanks · documented in his book Uncommon Type and in interviews
Used by
See & hear it for yourself
Manuals & repair
All sources
External, in their original form. The people who know these machines best — click through to read and watch.
Where to find one
Listings come and go. These show whatever Olympia SM9 machines are on the marketplace right now.
See Olympia SM9 listings on eBay marketplace
Some links here are affiliate links. If you find a machine through one I get a small share at no cost to you, and it doesn't change which machines I point to.
Specifications
- Manufacturer
- Olympia
- Origin
- West Germany
- Years
- 1964–1979
- Form
- Portable
- Mass
- 6 kg
- Shift
- basket