The Swiss Army Knife will forever be associated with its red handles and being the little, red pocket toolbox.

Whilst red is the most common colour for Swiss Army Knives, it is not the only colour in which they are available. Victorinox and Wenger both offer a rainbow of colour choices for their many and various models. For both companies, the smallest models are the ones that are available in the widest variety of colours: Typically these being the Victorinox Classic and the Wenger Esquire models. However, larger models are also often available in a few different colour options.

The Victorinox Alox range are offered in a very wide variety of beautiful, annodised scale colours, particularly for the Pioneer and Farmer models. Consequently, collecting the Alox colours is a theme for many Swiss Army Knife collectors.

The Wenger 85mm Evolution models also offered various colour options for these innovative scales.

The details in this Wiki page summarise colour options up until the early to mid-201Xs; many of the non-base colours listed below (ie. not red, black, blue, yellow etc), are no longer available. However, after that time, the Victorinox colour and scale options continued to expand, for instance with the Annual Alox Limited Editions, the Classic SD Annual LE Series, the 2021 Classic Colours Collection and the 2021 Precious Alox Collection. For more details see the Variations and Identifiers sections on the Classic page.

Victorinox Colours

Cellidor (Plastic) Scale Colours

Note: Most of these colours, apart from the core base colours (ie red, yellow, green, blue, black, white), are no longer available - However see the top section for links to information on currently available colours.

RED
Despite being the most common colour of SAK, Victorinox has the fewest shades of red available. Only red and ruby (translucent red) are found in this group.

ORANGE
The Orange Group includes four shades including some browns. The group is: Translucent orange; Taupe; Electric orange; and Rust. Upon further examination and research, some translucent brown models are definitely a faded onyx rather than a separate colour by itself. There is continuing debate regarding if all translucent brown scales are faded onyx! - See the link in the first comment at the bottom of the page for pictures and discussion.

YELLOW
Victorinox offers the following yellow shades: Yellow; Pale yellow; Citrine (translucent yellow); and Lemon yellow. The lemon yellow is a brighter, softer shade of yellow than the pale yellow which actually appears to have a hint of brown in it.

GREEN
The Green Group from Victorinox provides six shades: Pale green; Retro green; Hunter green; Emerald (translucent green); Sage and Forest green. Hunter is often referred to as simply green. It is a lighter colour green than Hunter, but still much darker than the pale green.

BLUE
The Blue Group shows five colours, and at least a bit of a naming controversy. The shades are: Dark blue (sapphire); Blue; Peacock blue; Sapphire (translucent blue); and Pale blue. Note that the dark blue (which is nearly black) is probably retired. It was used before the translucent scales were introduced and was referred to, on at least some packages, as sapphire. This is of course the name that Victorinox now uses for the translucent shade of blue.

PURPLE
Victorinox has three shades of the colour purple. The purples are distinctly darker than the pink group discussed below. The shades are: Plum purple; Pale purple; and Translucent purple. The plum purple is often referred to as simply purple.

PINK
The pink group has four shades. Note that these are generally brighter and lighter than the purples. The shades are: Raspberry sherbet; Pale pink; Hot pink; and Translucent pink.

MONOCHROME
The monochrome groups covers all the shades from white to black. They are: White; Gray; Onyx (translucent black); and Black.

SILVERTECH
Not included in the above group are the later SilverTech scales, introduced in 2008. These scales are clear, translucent plastic, with a silver backing, so technically it is not a solid colour, though some may include it in the monochrome group.
Since the SilverTech scales were introduced, Victorinox has had gold and white backings to the clear scales in the 'Olympic' Climber and the 2015 Christmas model.

Other Colours
It should be noted that beyond the solid colours listed above, there are a number of other options, including: Camouflage; Edelweiss flower patterns and colours; Tie-dye designs and colours; StayGlow scales that glow in the dark, and a number of Carbon-fibre; Natural wood and Horn scales.

Tye-dye Colours

Alox Colours

Initially the Victorinox Alox palette was smaller than than the Cellidor list and Alox models were only available in the following colours: Red; Green; Black; Blue; Light Blue; Brown; Silver (natural colour); and Copper. However in more recent times this trend has been reversed and many special edition Alox annodised colours were introduced, particularly for the Pioneer and Farmer models - See the links for examples and details.

In 2007 a Limited Edition set of (Euro) colours was introduced for the 58mm Classic SD Alox: Blue/Turquoise, Lime-green, Hot-pink, Autumn-orange.
Since 2015 Victorinox releases an Annual Limited Edition set of three coloured Alox knives: A Pioneer, Cadet and Classic. Each year's limited edition comes in a different colour.

Standard Alox Colours

Blue, Silver, Red, Green and Black

2007 Alox Classic Euro Colours

Original Smooth Alox Companion Colours

Original Ribbed Alox Classic-SD Colours

Shades of Red in the Alox 84mm Range

Other Alox Colours:

Some of the many Alox colours that have been available (in the past), are shown below.
In addition to colours available directly from Victorinox, certain dealers, from time to time, commission limited editions of specific colours.
Also see the top panel of this page for more information, and currently available Alox colours.

Olive Green Farmer

Aqua Green Long Rancher

Gold 84mm Models

Light Blue/Turquoise

Light Green

Orange

Brown

Blue (dark shade of blue)

58mm Colours Image Gallery

Click on the coloured box (far right) to visit the 58mm Colours Image Gallery

Victorinox Colour Numbering System

Victorinox Swiss Army Knives all have model codes of the format x.yyyy.zznn

• x - Denotes the family
• yyyy - The model code
• zz - The blade type - and sometimes special editions - NB zz is often not present in a model code
• nn - The colour

The following are the codes for the most common handle types and colours:

This list is not comprehensive, and there are many, many other colour codes (and scale types) - some of which can be worked out using the 'rules/formats' above (eg .24  will be green Alox), others are more random! For the codes for some of the more varied/unusual colours - See the Identifiers section of the Classic page, (and also that section for other models).

Wenger Colours

Cellidor (Plastic) Scale Colours

Wenger offered a rainbow of colour choices for various models, both in solid colours and translucent.

Wenger Scale Colour Codes from the 2009 EU Catalog

See the Wenger Esquire Page for a list of the many Wenger Esquire scale colours and materials.

Alox Colours

Wenger used red, black and blue colours for their Eloxy (Alox) SAKs. However some models also released in other colours.

Wenger Eloxy family, the Blue Bahia and Green Marbled models

Other Scale Options

There are a number of other Wenger models or series, including the Luxury Lithos series, which have highly polished, inlaid stone scales; the Macao Series, which have scales with an inlaid Chinese hand lacquer finish; and the Snife Series which have scales with unique custom designs.