Gillette Sensor

Identification notes for the base Gillette Sensor cartridge box — the first Gillette cartridge with individually spring-mounted twin blades. Carton packaging, the cartridge-dispenser mechanism shown in the instructions, barcode and distributor markets, and how it compares with the Sensor Excel entry already on file.

Era 1990 on Made by Gillette Deutschland GmbH & Co., Berlin Blades 2, individually spring-mounted Draft — single sample documented; further variants not yet on hand

Seven-point verification standard

1. Identification — box layout, barcode logged
2. Manufacturing — pending: no batch/print code visible on this sample to cross-reference
3. Packaging — one carton photographed front and back
4. Compatibility — pending: this back doesn't carry an explicit "fits all Sensor razors" line, unlike the Sensor Excel sample
5. Rarity — pending: no comparison sample size yet
6. Collectability — pending
7. References — primary photography only; secondary sources not yet added

Overview

What Sensor is

Sensor was Gillette's first cartridge with two blades individually mounted on springs, rather than fixed side by side — the mechanism that later Sensor Excel builds on by adding Flexible Microfins ahead of the same spring-mounted blades. This entry documents a single physical sample, photographed front and back, and is cross-referenced against the Sensor Excel entry already on file rather than treated in isolation.

Packaging

Card front

Like Sensor Excel, base Sensor ships in a fully enclosed carton rather than a hanger-card blister tray, with the same wide-wave hanger notch. The front is black with a photorealistic razor photo (cartridge and handle, angled) rather than a line drawing, "Gillette" in white and "Sensor" in light blue, and diagonal blue/silver stripe borders down each side. The pack holds 5 cartridges.

Gillette Sensor carton front, showing black livery, photorealistic razor image and five-cartridge count — Carton front as photographed — black livery, light-blue "Sensor" wordmark, diagonal stripe borders.

Card back

The back carries a three-step instructional pictogram rather than the simpler two- or four-step sequences seen on the Contour/GII family: step 1 shows the cartridge being unwrapped by hand, steps 2 and 3 show it being loaded into what looks like a dedicated plastic dispenser tray before transferring to the handle. That dispenser-style loading step hasn't appeared on any other product profiled on this hub so far, and is worth confirming once a physical Sensor handle or dispenser is on hand. Below the pictogram sits a Gillette Series cross-sell graphic, a "Made by" block, a distributor list, a barcode, and an ingredients line — no batch or print code is visible, the same gap noted on the Sensor Excel cartons.

Gillette Sensor carton back, showing three-step dispenser-tray pictogram, distributor list and barcode — Carton back as photographed — three-step dispenser-tray pictogram, distributor list, barcode.

Identification

Sample on hand

Front-of-card

Cartridge count: 5
Livery: Black ground, light-blue "Sensor" wordmark, diagonal blue/silver stripe borders
Product image: Photorealistic razor photo, not a line drawing

Back-of-card

Barcode: 3 014260 210359
Ingredients: PEG-115M, PEG-7M, PEG-100, BHT
Language set: English/Hecho por/Greek only on the "Made by" block — no Finnish/Swedish, unlike several Contour-family samples
Distributor markets: Annecy, Berlin, Brussels, Espoo-Esbo, København, Lisboa, London TW7 5NP, Madrid, Milano, Oslo, Rijswijk ZH, Stockholm, Wien, Zürich, Dublin (Daelgate Ltd.) — plus Metamorfosi (Greece)

Same carton format as Sensor Excel, different barcode family. This sample's barcode (3 014260 210359) doesn't match either Sensor Excel barcode already on file (216665 for the 10-pack, 216658 for the 5-pack) — expected, since it's a different product line, but useful confirmation that the barcode block is genuinely product-specific here rather than shared the way it was between the Contour Plus and Contour Plus Lubrastrip samples.

Cross-sell lineup (Cool Wave After Shave, Gel, Shaving Foam, Shave Gel Concentrate, After Shave Gel) matches Contour's Back 1 and GII Plus exactly — the same recurring Gillette Series set seen across several entries now, despite Sensor being a different cartridge generation to either.

Compatibility

What this cartridge fits

This particular back doesn't carry an explicit compatibility statement — no "fits all Sensor razors" line, unlike the Sensor Excel cartons already on file. Given Sensor Excel's on-pack promise that "all Sensor cartridges fit all Sensor razors," base Sensor cartridges are expected to interchange with Sensor Excel handles and vice versa, but that's inferred from the Sensor Excel copy rather than stated on this card — flagged as pending under Compatibility above.

References

Sources

Primary: one Gillette Sensor five-cartridge carton, photographed front and back and transcribed directly for this entry, August 2026.
Cross-referenced against the Gillette Sensor Excel entry already on file for this hub.
Secondary sources — manufacturer archives, collector forums, dated retail listings — have not yet been added; see the verification checklist above.

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