The earlier 5630s were made in Japan and later examples in China. Earlier still models may have been made in Germany as some rotring models were. The German company rotring purchased the Koh-I-Noor Pencil Company of Bloomsbury, New Jersey in 1985 and the company became Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph Inc.

Rotring had long offered drafting pencils identical in form to the Koh-I-Noor 5630 series (see rotring 500). The Koh-I-Noor Select-O-Matic II thick lead drafting leadholder was stylistically akin to the Rapidomatic, even sharing some parts.

The now familiar nose on the Rapidomatic was a very odd looking feature for a mechanical pencil when they first appeared in the 1980s. The thin cylindrical nose was actually strictly functional, allowing the pencil to be used in a Leroy style scriber. Even now, long after Leroy equipment has become obsolete, the aesthetic of the Rapidomatic nose continues influence the design of many mechanical pencils, drafting or otherwise; for examples see the Faber-Castell TK Vario, the Pentel Graph 1000, and the Staedtler 925.