Lens Guide
Eye Care
The lens is the product. The frame is the packaging.
Almost every complaint about new spectacles — the swimming feeling, the narrow reading zone, the headache by four o'clock — is a lens or a fitting problem, not a frame problem. This is what we are choosing between when we sit down with you.
How many distances do you need?
Single vision
One correction across the whole lens. Right for most people under forty, and for anyone who wants a dedicated pair for one task — driving, or a screen at a fixed distance.
Bifocal
Two zones with a visible line. Largely superseded by progressives, but still the honest answer for some patients — the segment is unambiguous, and some people simply get on with it better.
Progressive
Distance, intermediate and near in one lens with no line. The quality difference between a cheap progressive and a good one is enormous, and it comes down to corridor design and how accurately the lens is centred to your pupils. This is the single measurement most often done badly elsewhere.
Occupational and screen lenses
Weighted for arm's length and near instead of distance. If you spend eight hours at a monitor, a general progressive is a compromise and a dedicated pair is not a luxury.
Thickness, and why index matters
The stronger your prescription, the thicker the lens — unless you buy a higher refractive index, which bends light more sharply and does the same job in less material.
| 1.50 · standard | Low prescriptions only. Thick beyond about ±2.00. |
| 1.60 · thin | The sensible default for moderate prescriptions. |
| 1.67 · extra thin | Noticeably slimmer edges from around ±4.00. |
| 1.74 · thinnest | High prescriptions, and rimless or metal frames where the edge shows. |
| Polycarbonate · Trivex | Impact-resistant. Our default for children and for sports. |
Coatings and finishes
Anti-reflective — not cosmetic. It recovers light the lens surface would otherwise throw away, which matters most at night and on screens. A good multi-layer AR is the coating we argue for hardest.
Hard coat — scratch resistance. Standard on everything we dispense.
Blue-light filter — worth having if your day is screens and your evenings are restless. Worth being honest about too: it is comfort, not a cure.
Photochromic — darkens outdoors. Convenient as a single pair, though it reacts poorly behind a windscreen.
Polarised — cuts glare off roads, water and glass. The correct choice for driving sunglasses and the wrong one for reading an LCD dashboard.
Bespoke tints — mixed in-house, to a depth and gradient you choose. The same tinting work behind the Vintage Wall.
Whose lenses
Our lens partners
We dispense from four sources. Which one you leave with depends on your prescription and what you need the lens to do — not on what we happen to be pushing.
Essilor
The broadest progressive range, and the one we reach for most often when a patient is adapting to varifocals for the first time.
ZEISS
Precision optics and individualised designs. Where the prescription is complex or the patient is demanding, this is usually the answer.
Hoya
Strong high-index and occupational lenses — particularly good for heavy screen users and for thinning strong prescriptions.
Optique
Our own house lens, specified by us and finished in-house. The same optical standard without the licence on the box — and the range our bespoke tints are cut on.
How we decide, together
We ask what you do all day before we ask what you'd like to wear. Driving at night, hours at a monitor, a workshop, a classroom, a cockpit — each pulls the answer in a different direction. Then we measure: pupillary distance, fitting heights, vertex distance, and how the chosen frame actually sits on your face.