Prescription Lenses For Spectacles Now Available Starting At $99

Prescription lenses have arrived for Snapchat Spectacles. Here’s everything you need to know about these lenses for Snap Inc.’s wearable.

People are seemingly falling over themselves to get access to Snap Inc.’s new Spectacles sunglasses, and rightly so given the functionality that they offer and how they tie into the company’s software proposition. Still, even though they look pretty trendy, and offer fantastic video-recording capabilities that can then be uploaded directly to a Snapchat account, the wearable doesn’t really cater for those who have vision issues and need prescription eyewear. Step forward the good people at Rochester Optical with a solution.

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You may or may not remember but when Google released the ill-fated Glass hardware, Rochester Optical took the opportunity then as well to capitalize on by creating prescription lenses for the Glass product. The company is trying something similar here with Spectacles.

Yes, Snap Inc.’s Spectacles are a different type of product to Google’s Glass in that they simply offer recording capabilities rather than record and view or interaction with other apps, but they are still perfectly placed for Rochester to offer prescription lenses, which will in turn open the experience up to a lot more people.

Pricing for the Rochester Optical lenses start at a very reasonable $99 for normal lenses. Of course, like any provider of prescription eyewear, prices rise when you start getting fancy and wanting a set of lenses with additional options. As an example, if you have great difficulty seeing, and generally have to wear a set of glasses that resemble Coca-Cola bottles, then you may need a high-index lens that is not only stronger than a $99 lens, but also costs a little more, retailing at around the $149 mark. Get a bit more fancy with polarized or photochromic options and you will have to part with a cool $200. And of course, the Spectacles hardware will be an additional $130 on top of any custom lenses.

The process isn’t as simple as going to an optician either. Rochester Optical will actually require the consumer to purchase a set of Spectacles for $130, have them sent directly to Rochester’s facilities with a corresponding prescription, where the lenses will be manufactured and fit to the Spectacles hardware.

Definitely worth doing for the technology lover who regular uses Snapchat and wants to capture the world in cylindrical real-time, but maybe not so much for the rest of us who see it as a little bit of a novelty. Head over to rochesteroptical.com/store/spectacles/ right now if you wish to place your order.

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