Parker's first roller ball pen, The Systemark, was test marketed in Winnipeg in Canada, in the spring of 1974 and by 1975 it was introduced as a "floating ball pen", Stylus (a very hard fiber tip that could be used on carbon paper) and the "super soft" felt tip version, previously made for the Parker Touché. Within a year only the Jotter sold in greater numbers than the Systemark. According to Malcolm Troak it was Jaques Margry who saw the potential of the refill and decided to develop a pen especially made for the refill, and he wanted it fast! Troak describes the process as designed basically on the back of a cigarette packet by a handful of Newhaven people. It was designed to make Parker a fast brand leader in that market segment. The new RB-1 roller ball became immensely popular and after the introduction in England in July of 1981, and in the US in September, it sold in more than two million units before christmas. Parker describes the roller ball in an in-house newsletter as meeting a "staggering demand" and Malcolm Troak in his book "Pen to paper" reveals that the RB-1 quickly became the brand leader in that particular segment of the marketplace.

The first RB-1 was made in a matte black polycarbonate and satin finish trim with a metal l gripping section. It sported a clean, straight cap with no cap rings and a newly designed clip which had the appearance of a chiseled-out arrow with three facets. It had no engraved feathers and was a very modern and clean design, fabricated to allow easy engraving on the clip. Earlier, in August of 1977, Parker had recruited Willi Seiberger from Parker Germany. He had made a great job boasting Parker’s sales in Germany and since the sales in general was poor in the US, Parker hoped that Seiberger would repeat his magic as he was made responsible for the marketing for US and Canada. Parker in the US was working on a massive introduction of a new, modern writing instrument, the Parker Arrow which was silently introduced in July 1981, followed by an official launch on August 19 in 1981 at a press conference to which more than 50 publications had accepted an invitation. The introduction was described by Parker as the most massive marketing effort since the launching of the Parker “45” in 1960. Hoping to capture 40-50 % of the US gift pen (over $10) market within five years Parker opted for prime time tv-spots and full colour print ads in several the high end magazines and Newspapers.

It was an all-metal pen aimed at the business executive gift and self-purchase market. It sported a clean, straight cap with no cap rings and a newly designed clip which had the appearance of a chiselled-out arrow with three facets. It had no engraved feathers and was a very modern and clean design, fabricated to allow easy engraving on the clip. Although the earliest models had “Parker” engraved on the top facet and the feathers had a brushed finish. This proved too expensive so the engraving and texture was subsequently removed. Now the only restriction for the RB-1 came from Seiberger who insisted that at least the clip should follow the design for the Parker Arrow. While the Arrow clip was a stylised two-piece arrow the Newhaven team already had designed a similar one-piece clip. But it was eventually decided that the Arrow clip should be fitted to the RB-1 But very soon there were customer complaints about the sharp edges of the two-piece clip and also that it was prone to breakage. The one-piece clip was later added to the design when the name was changed to Vector in 1984.

Also the design of the pen itself made it perfectly suited for printing company logos and messages on it. The Newhaven industrial marketing has produced an array of designs in an array of colours and also winning many prestigious awards for their work. Unlike the Vector the RB1 has a two-piece clip, like the Arrow. It also has the minus sign on top, like on the vector. In early 1984 a fountain pen version was added to the model, it was called FP-1 and lead a short life until later in 1984 when both models were replaced by the Vector. There are some subtle design differences between the RB-1/FP-1 and the Vector. The barrel on the Vector was slightly shorter, the gripping section and cap slightly longer. Since these features are hard to determine unless one actually compares the two pens, the easiest was to distinguish them is the design of the clip. The RB-1 and FP-1 had the Arrow-style two-piece clip, while the Vector had the one-piece clip with a curved end. Read more in the Parker Vector chapter.