Most of my collection of vintage looseleaf notebooks is either basic black ring binders from the first half of the 20th century from makers like Marquette and Wilson Jones, or Filofax organizers from the 1980s and 1990s. I don’t have that many other brands, so I was happy to add this Succes organizer to my collection.

That isn’t a typo– the brand is Succes, with one S. (Well, two Ss but only one at the end!) Succes is a Dutch company that has existed since 1928, first as the publisher of a business magazine, then branching out into producing leather agenda covers in 1932. They are still in business today, selling their own and other brands of organizers.

My Succes organizer dates to 1981, based on its calendar insert. It does not appear to have ever been used. The leather is a lovely cordovan or oxblood color, with a smooth, slightly shiny texture. It looks like the texture imitated by the faux-leather covers of Moleskine notebooks, except that it also has some slight lines or creases along it. The cover has metal corner protectors, in a silver metallic color to match the rings. I’m not usually a fan of these corners, mainly because they usually seem to be in a gold or brass color, but they do give the Succes notebook a somewhat more formal look, and should keep the corners from getting bent and scuffed. There is a small Succes logo on the back cover. The size and no-fastener design are very similar to many of the pocket slim Filofaxes I’ve reviewed.

Inside, there’s a nice arrangement of pockets that make this a good wallet– on the left a secretarial pocket with another pocket on top, and on the right a full-length pocket and slots for 4 cards. The pockets have a contrasting liner in fabric and leather, while the spine behind the rings is backed with leather.

The rings are about 1cm in diameter from side to side– they have a slight oval shape which allows for less wasted space than a perfectly circular ring. They have a nice snappy mechanism and close without any gaps.

The Succes organizer came with what must be only part of its original inserts, which show the brand name Seven Star Diary. This was apparently the sub-brand Succes used for marketing a Filofax-type organizer system. The front page has space for contact details, and also serves as the index tab for the “diary” section. The other tabs are labeled “months,” “cash,” “alphabet,” and “notes.” It’s interesting that they have an “alphabet” tab– unlike Filofax, where they label it “addresses,” this tab acknowledges that you might file other information alphabetically too.

Each tab serves a double purpose, with yearly calendars, lists of holidays, weights and measures, first aid tips, and space to fill in with “personal memoranda” facts like clothing size, insurance info, and what model typewriter and binoculars you own! The narrow area designated for “train or bus service” with “to/from” columns puzzles me– I’m not sure how you’d fit much useful information there. But I love this concept overall– why should divider tabs be blank when you could pack them with useful information you might want to refer to?

The calendar only has pages for a couple of months, so I’m guessing that the original system here was designed to have you only carry the daily pages for a couple of months at a time, and then note longer-term items in monthly pages. There are month-on-two-page spreads for all of 1981 and through March 1982. I love the use of the square grid across the daily and monthly calendar pages– nice and flexible while also helping you keep things neatly aligned.

The daily pages have a column with the half hours from 8am to 10pm, and then grid space at the side. It might not work for people with larger handwriting, but to me, this is a very functional and attractive layout. I also love the retro digital-clock look to the date numbers, and the little quotes and aphorisms at the bottom of each page. At the end of each month, there is a notes page before the next month’s days begin– or at least there is one between March and April, which are the only months I have!

This little organizer is quite lovely on its own, but it also came with a bonus: a matching jotter. It’s just slightly smaller than the organizer, and is a simple folder with a secretarial pocket on the left, and a full length pocket on the right, on top of which are strips of leather that will hold a few sheets of paper– four sheets with a square grid were included. This would be a handy item to keep in one’s pocket for quick notes which can later be filed in the organizer.

I had never even heard of Succes or the Seven Star Diary brand until I bought this, but I’m sure some readers will remember them. There are various mentions of this system online, often in the context of people talking about organizational systems like Franklin Planners, Dayrunners, Filofax and GTD. The brand seems to have been distributed primarily in Europe, Japan, Israel, and British Commonwealth, but I don’t know if it ever appeared in the US market. If I’d come across this Succes Seven Star Diary in 1981 when I was a kid, I would have been over the moon about it! And many of its design elements are still appealing and inspiring today.