There is usually a pair in a drawer.
Wayfarers from a holiday you still think about. Aviators you were wearing in a photograph someone framed. They suited your face in a way nothing since has, and then your prescription changed, and wearing them stopped being a choice you could make.
Most people who write to us have already decided that is the end of it. They assume the frame is too old. They assume that putting a prescription into sunglasses means buying the whole thing again. And the one we hear most often — they assume that whatever lens ends up in there will not really be Ray-Ban.
That last assumption is the one worth clearing up, because it is the reason we did this properly.
What we are making
Ray-Ban prescription lenses, made by Ray-Ban, etched with the Ray-Ban logo, and cut to the frame you already own. Not a compatible lens. Not a copy cut to roughly the right shape. The same lens Ray-Ban would put in that frame, with your prescription in it.
They are glazed here, and dispensed by a GOC-registered dispensing optician. UV protection, a scratch-resistant hard coat and anti-reflective are on every pair as standard, because a lens without them is not really finished.
What it costs, plainly
From £119, up to £349 depending on the lens you choose. That is the lenses, the glazing and the coatings together — there is no list of extras waiting at the end.
Fitting is the only thing on top. Fit the lenses into your frame yourself and there is nothing more to pay. If you would rather we did it, it is £10, and that includes a Royal Mail label to send your frame in on.
Your frame is probably fine
You do not need to have bought it from us, and it does not matter how old it is. If the frame is sound, it can be glazed. If it is not — a loose hinge, a cracked rim, an arm that has been bent back one time too many — that is repairable too, and we would rather fix it than tell you to replace it.
What we need from you is the model number and size, both printed on the arms. If you have never had cause to look, here is where to find them.
What we can and cannot do
These are single vision lenses, with spheres from −6.00 to +6.00 and cylinders to 4.00. Varifocals and bifocals are not made for Ray-Ban sun frames, by anyone, so if that is what you need we would rather say so now than take the order.
A strong prescription narrows which lens colours will work on some frames. You are never shown a lens that cannot be made for your prescription and your frame, so anything you can select, we can make.
How long it takes
Seven to ten days from the day the job is placed. If you are sending the frame in for fitting, that starts when it reaches us.
And if your prescription is somewhere in a drawer of its own, order anyway and choose Send it later. We will email you for it. Your optician is obliged to give you a copy.
Why we bothered
We have been repairing and reglazing eyewear since 1999, and the thing we hear most is some version of the same sentence: I loved those, and I had to stop wearing them. Frames that fit properly are not easy to find, and there is something quietly wasteful about a good one sitting unused because the lenses in it are the wrong ones.
So: what have you got in the drawer? Send us the model number and we will tell you honestly whether we can do it.