Transition Lenses: Stop Switching Between Glasses and Sunglasses

Prescription Sunglasses

Owning a pair of sunglasses is not an option. Stylish as they can be, sunglasses are essential safety equipment for driving and activity during the day, especially in the morning and evening, and is something that glasses wearers have struggled with for hundreds of years. We’ve been trying to figure out the most convenient way to add shades to prescription lenses for as long as both have existed.

A Second Pair for Sunglasses?

The first and simplest solution is simply to have two pairs of prescription glasses, one with a tint applied to the lenses. This is still a common fallback when more advanced options aren’t available. Unfortunately, this requires you to keep a case handy to hold the unused pair. Each switch takes thirty seconds to two minutes depending on your speed and you have to take good care of both pairs of glasses to ensure vision clarity both indoors and out.

Cover Shades Aren‘t Any Better

Because glasses are neat, part of our constant daily lives, and people are innovative we have continued to work on ideas for shaded prescription glasses. Another solution was to wear non-prescription lenses that fit over your normal glasses. This technically achieves the same thing and has some pros and cons depending on the design. One application of this method is a pair of shades that hang around the neck, keeping your shades add-ons handy without requiring you to stow your original glasses. Other solutions involve large lenses on thin wire frames, a folding pair of pocket sun-shades, and large fisherman’s shades that slot over your normal glasses. These have the benefit of being lendable to non-glasses-wearing friends, but always add a certain amount of inconvenience and additional weight on your nose and ears.

What About Clip-Ons?

As we get better at making glasses, the techniques available for transitioning from clear lenses to shades also improves. Clip-ons are one of the more recent innovations, and by that we mean that they were patented in 1960 and were popularized in the 80s. Clip-on shades are just the front frame of a pair of tinted-nonprescription sunglasses that are made to perfectly attach with small clamps or magnets to the front of your normal prescription glasses. They add only about half the weight of doubling up, can be switched in about five to thirty seconds, and don’t require you to take off your normal glasses. They do, however, have to be stowed safely in a protected (won’t get sat on) and lens-soft pouch, then retrieved and put away as you switch between bright and dim environments.

Briefly, clip-ons developed an off-shoot known as flip-up glasses which did reduce the transition time to about two seconds in both directions, they also looked ridiculous when in the flipped-up state so were abandoned by most fairly quickly.

Transition – The Hands-Free Solution to Prescription Sunglasses

As time rolled on, science and chemistry technique got a lot cooler. Prescription lenses can now be treated with a photochromatic or “light reactive color” solution that responds specifically to the risky UV waves given off by the sun. These lenses effectively know when you’re indoors, in the shade, or standing in direct sunlight. With minimal UV present, they are perfectly clear so act like normal glasses inside but the moment you step out into the sun, the coating responds to UV exposure and darkens to protect your eyes. Then when you go inside they clear up once the UV is gone.

This unique chemical reaction allows us to solve a centuries-old problem of how to have both tinted and untinted lenses with the least possible interruption. With transition lenses, you don’t have to carry any extra equipment or do anything at all for your normal prescription glasses to become the prescription sunglasses you need, then transition right back. Hands-free and incredibly convenient.