Fresh back from the magic of Joel Hamilton, we have this little bit of pen history. From Richard Binder's and David Nishimura's websites, we learn that Waterman produced a demonstrator of the Ink Vue for dealers. As they both said, this would be a slightly later Type 1 ink vue, with the stepped cap. I happen to have found it on fleabay
What was interesting about it was that the cap and back of the barrel were painted or coated in black... something. This began to come off when restoring the pen, so at my request, Joel removed the rest of it.
Sharp eyes will notice that the section is weird - there is no taper to it at all, it almost doesn't look as if its correct.
See the imprint
I believe this was meant to go into an autosignature machine. Why would they choose to use a dealer demonstrator pen? Why would they paint it? I suppose its useful for one of these machines to know how much ink is left...
Anyway, Joel did his magic and the pen is a marvel.