Vintage Eyeglasses

[Ernest P Shackleton]

How's the quality of the wire Shuron uses? I assume it is good quality. Is it stamped "stainless steel" anywhere on the frame? I've had wire frames my whole life, and even when they offered complex, flexing hinges with moving parts for kids (those frames weighed a ton), I was constantly bending frames and having to constantly adjust nosepads. These things weren't cheap back then, either. My present frames are stainless steel, and though they look dainty and of thinner gauge than anything I've ever had, I think I've only had to mess with adjusting a bow once or twice after an elbow on a basketball court. These things have proven to be really tough, though being thinner than your average wire coat hanger. I've been looking at the Shuron Ronstrong frames.

 

[Edward]

I don't have a pair to hand just now.... I don't recall them being stamped stainless, but certainly in normal usage I never had a problem with them in terms of durability.

 

[Retromoto]

While I've wore ArtCraft RimCraft which are USA made, my older items are not stamped although they do specify on the website. I believe they're Monel although do vary from model to model. Try contacting Shuron through CS, they pretty prompt about getting back to you. Good luck, G.

 

[Retromoto]

Due to a breakage of my current lens and the fact that my Eye Doctor is closed due to CoVid19, I'm going to order a pair of Shuron frames. Have the people who've ordered frames and lens been happy with the results? My biggest concern is the lens produced by their labs. I wear progressive lens and the name brands don't apply here so it's tough to compare things. Are the coatings comparable with the name brands? Are the prescriptions accurate? I've tried to research things although coming up a bit short on good info. Any suggestions or knowledge of their products is appreciated, Thanks, G.

I've decided to forgo online Frames and lens, just too many variables, especially for a progressive wearer. PD, Segment height, different grinds, etc. I'm picky about my eyes and don't want to take a chance on non-branded ARC's, lens materials, grind processes, etc. I really don't have a idea on what I'm getting and paying for.
G.

 

[Edward]

This thread has been dormant for some time. I've recently picked up some new glasses having had my prescription updated as happens once every two years. I actually did buy some frames in the opticians because I took advantage of a two-for-one deal. Specsavers in the UK have reintroduced a pleasing browline model called the Perth:

Compared to my Ronsirs, these have a slightly deeper curve to the browline, but I like them too. These were £90, but with the two-for-one offer I got a second pair the same made up as sunglasses. (Another option was to take just the one pair with free transitions lenses. For many years I used to have transitions as standard in all my glasses and not use sunglasses, but in more recent years I came to prefer clear glasses for much of the time and have a pair or two prescription sunglasses). I still have some Ronsir frames that I'm having relensed separately. I've found a few places online where, once I have my prescription in hand, I can order complete glasses or have existing pairs relensed very affordably. A place in Manchester just relensed two pairs of frames for me as reading glasses for £27.50 a pair. The saving on relensing existing frames is, if anything, significantly more pronounced when going online. My Specsavers glasses I kept rigidly to standard thickness lenses (with my prescription, they do do the hard sell on the thinning and all the rest). Relensing in that sort of place is significantly more expensive than buying a complete pair; in 2008, Specsavers charged me nearly £200 (that's not adjusted for inflation!) for a single pair of Shurons being lensed (I bought the frames elsewhere as at the time their inhouse range had nothing I liked). That was for single vision lenses, with photochromic capability - which at least in those days they would only fit to the very thinnest and therefore most expensive lenses in the range... I guess it might be worth the expense if you only want one pair that does it all. I prefer to have a range of options (colours and, now, styles as well), so cheaper definitely helps. Even in at today's prices, a reliable online source will typically do three or four pairs with some extra options for £200.

FWIW, both of my pairs of reading glasses are now Specsavers as well, the Harrier model:

Still in the catalogue, though mine have cycled out of having been their original lenses are are now readers (these are the ones I recently had lensed online). Great for that.


An online business I've now used three times with great success is feelgoodcontacts.com. I picked up the first pair of sunglasses from them about eighteen months ago, and just got a new pair last week, exactly the same with my new prescription:

These, which have a bit of a 50s feel, are the Earth Ezra model. The Earth brand do a range of acetate frames in this sort of 50s/60s retro look. Basic frames themselves are about £15; my first pair of sunglasses was just over £50. The new pair were a few pounds more expensive - inflation, inevitably, but still excellent value compared to what they'd have cost me anywhere else. Only shame about this company is they don't do relensing, though I still have my original sunnies from them which I'll probably have relensed elsewhere as readers at some point. They provide a range of other brands as well, of course (including Ray Ban clubmasters for anyone interested in the browline style). There is a range under their own brand with a number of nice, retro looking models with frames for around a fiver; I had a pair of those as reading glasses that in total cost about £30. The frames aren't quite as nicely made as the Earth ones as you'd expect (no wire framed inside the leg the way the Earths and more expensive pairs have), but they seemed perfectly durable, at least for reading glasses. Good option if you need prescription readers in the UK and want to keep the cost down.


My next adventure with vintage style eyewear is likely to be actual vintage frames... I have my eyes on a pair of 40s Gas Mask specs from Dead Men's Spex for that pre-1947 look. I'm also very tempted by a pair of pincenez on that website, for readers for formal occasions.

 

[Zoro]

I'm spending a few days at my mom's and I've thought these old Ray Ban Bausch & Lomb aviators that belonged to my father and are quite older than me (don't know exactly the year but 80s, perhaps 70s) would be appreciated here:

 

[Edward]

I'm spending a few days at my mom's and I've thought these old Ray Ban Bausch & Lomb aviators that belonged to my father and are quite older than me (don't know exactly the year but 80s, perhaps 70s) would be appreciated here: View attachment 723966 View attachment 723967 View attachment 723968

​

That circle shape in the bridge is very distinctive. Per an internet search, these look to be a particular model of Aviators called the Decot, named after a sports shooter called Budd Decot, designed ni the 50s and shaped to be particularly suitable for shooting - https://www.vintagesunglassesshop.com/item_vs3268.html FWIW, a new pair with non-prescription lenses now retaisl in the UK at GBP155.

The exaggerated teardrop-shape of the lenses is something I associate very much with the 70s and 80s. At least where I grew up if you saw an adult man in sunglasses it was most likely to be something of a general Aviator style, with particularly this shape of lense. I don't doubt Top *** rather helped boost sales in the mid-late eighties, though they were very commonly seen before that. Wayfarers had a classic cool at the time as well, though I think Jake and Elwood did more for them than Risky Business. According to the web, Clubmaster, my own RB favourites, were the third-best selling B&L sunglasses in the eighties, though I don't recall the browline style being at all common on our patch. I think I first saw a pair of those in The Lost Boys, to which I've long suspected Tim Roth's wearing them in Reservoir Dogs was a nod (the vamp classic is also referenced in part of the Dogs' dialogue).

FWIW, I wouldn't suggest switching those lenses out for an RX prescription. I remember an optician years ago pointing me towards an alternative, equivalent quality much much cheaper frame for prescription glasses, saying that what you're really paying for in the Ray Bans is the quality of the lenses... though nowadays it seems they have shifted to selling frames for that purpose rather than it being a "customisation" post-sale. Does man though there's quite a used market for the frames as well. I've owned a couple of pairs of real RB Clubmasters - in the days when I wore contact lenses - and they were very nice sunglasses indeed.

​

​

 

[Zoro]

​

That circle shape in the bridge is very distinctive. Per an internet search, these look to be a particular model of Aviators called the Decot, named after a sports shooter called Budd Decot, designed ni the 50s and shaped to be particularly suitable for shooting - https://www.vintagesunglassesshop.com/item_vs3268.html FWIW, a new pair with non-prescription lenses now retaisl in the UK at GBP155.

The exaggerated teardrop-shape of the lenses is something I associate very much with the 70s and 80s. At least where I grew up if you saw an adult man in sunglasses it was most likely to be something of a general Aviator style, with particularly this shape of lense. I don't doubt Top *** rather helped boost sales in the mid-late eighties, though they were very commonly seen before that. Wayfarers had a classic cool at the time as well, though I think Jake and Elwood did more for them than Risky Business. According to the web, Clubmaster, my own RB favourites, were the third-best selling B&L sunglasses in the eighties, though I don't recall the browline style being at all common on our patch. I think I first saw a pair of those in The Lost Boys, to which I've long suspected Tim Roth's wearing them in Reservoir Dogs was a nod (the vamp classic is also referenced in part of the Dogs' dialogue).

FWIW, I wouldn't suggest switching those lenses out for an RX prescription. I remember an optician years ago pointing me towards an alternative, equivalent quality much much cheaper frame for prescription glasses, saying that what you're really paying for in the Ray Bans is the quality of the lenses... though nowadays it seems they have shifted to selling frames for that purpose rather than it being a "customisation" post-sale. Does man though there's quite a used market for the frames as well. I've owned a couple of pairs of real RB Clubmasters - in the days when I wore contact lenses - and they were very nice sunglasses indeed.

​

​

Thanks for such a detailed answer! No way I'm changing anything about them, part of what makes them cool is precisely their age.

I've another pair (somewhat of an hexagonal shape in each lens) from around the same time that I've also left at my mom's (and she has reclaimed for herself in the recent years). A former coworker was always offering to buy both pairs at slightly more than what a new pair was for each. I always rejected it cause these are worth far more than that, both economically and personally.

I've a few modern pairs, mainly Wayfarer's which were my first self bought pair like 18 years ago and Clubmaster I've bought like 8 years ago and I did switch the lenses to polarized blue ones purely because I liked them (and I couldn't get them as so in a ready to buy configuration).

 

[Edward]

Thanks for such a detailed answer! No way I'm changing anything about them, part of what makes them cool is precisely their age.

I've another pair (somewhat of an hexagonal shape in each lens) from around the same time that I've also left at my mom's (and she has reclaimed for herself in the recent years). A former coworker was always offering to buy both pairs at slightly more than what a new pair was for each. I always rejected it cause these are worth far more than that, both economically and personally.

I've a few modern pairs, mainly Wayfarer's which were my first self bought pair like 18 years ago and Clubmaster I've bought like 8 years ago and I did switch the lenses to polarized blue ones purely because I liked them (and I couldn't get them as so in a ready to buy configuration).

It's interesting what a range of lenses are available now. My latest browline sunglasses have dark green lenses, which I really like; they seem to distort colours less than grey lenses. My purple / violet lens sunglasses I love. Great for the sun, less need than other shades I've had to remove them when ducking indoors. Make everything look like a Wes Anderson picture.

I'd like to try an RX lens with a very slight tint at some point - not enough for sunglasses, just enough to give it a little cosmetic difference.

 

[Zoro]

My Wayfarer's have dark green lenses and my Clubmasters have blue polarized ones. I was reading the other day that apparently Ray Ban's current (I guess also 8-10 years ago) polarized glasses are not glass but some very hard plastic, unlike brands like Persol, but I'm unsure of the difference when it comes to performance or even quality (obviously plastic is more cost effective than glass though).

None of these Ray Bans distort colours at all beyond the expected. The ones I've got that distort are Retrosuperfuture (Not a TFL brand at all I guess) green glasses, which turn all blackish/bluish fabrics into purplish. It was a very weird feeling at first.

I've been seeing these days quite a lot of different brands that have prescription glasses that have magnetic sun lenses which I found quite nice! I don't need them anymore as I got ICL a few years ago, otherwise I might had bought some.

 

[Edward]

My Wayfarer's have dark green lenses and my Clubmasters have blue polarized ones. I was reading the other day that apparently Ray Ban's current (I guess also 8-10 years ago) polarized glasses are not glass but some very hard plastic, unlike brands like Persol, but I'm unsure of the difference when it comes to performance or even quality (obviously plastic is more cost effective than glass though).

None of these Ray Bans distort colours at all beyond the expected. The ones I've got that distort are Retrosuperfuture (Not a TFL brand at all I guess) green glasses, which turn all blackish/bluish fabrics into purplish. It was a very weird feeling at first.

I've been seeing these days quite a lot of different brands that have prescription glasses that have magnetic sun lenses which I found quite nice! I don't need them anymore as I got ICL a few years ago, otherwise I might had bought some.

Plastic lenses have been a real game changer. I was wearing glass lenses until probably the mid 90s when the plastics finally took over and became the only option. In the early days back in the late 80s plastic lenses were an option, but they scratched so easily... that changed later. The fact they don't immediately break if you drop your glasses is a huge plus - I had more than one pair had to be relensed after a drop way back when.