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Comment by patentatt | Hacker News Reader

I’ve tried to change lenses while keeping frames, most manufacturers make it pretty hard to do so. Some don’t sell blank lenses without frames, and others have such fragmented and changing product lines that lenses aren’t available 1-2 years after original purchase. And to be fair, frames aren’t really all that durable anyways, and for something used daily it’s not all that wasteful to replace them every once in a while

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That's not how eyeglasses work. Lenses are supplied to opticians as a round blank, which are then cut to fit the frame. Any optician should be able to re-glaze any frame, regardless of age or manufacturer; their equipment measures the frame, then cuts the lens to fit. It's really quite impressive to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCjGNUPO0WU

Things are changing again. My optician used to work as you described, but for my last set of glasses I would choose the frame and he would enter my lens specification into the manufacturers webpage. The manufacturer (a German brand) with a Singapore factory would produce then the desired frame and equip it with the fitting lenses and send off the bundle to my optician here in Germany. As I had the same lens specs as my previous glasses, I can say that the new glasses are optically superior and the whole package was even distinctively cheaper than the previous one.

Still the same concept though, just moved: the Signapore facility still starts with a round blank and grinds it to "whatever is required", so you can fit any lens to any frame still.

Well my experience above was with Costco optical and Kirkland branded frames, a Luxottica brand frame through a small independent optician, and Warby Parker. Maybe they were just blowing smoke to drive sales of new frames? I dunno. The one time I did get new lenses, they didn’t fit quite right and always looked a little “off”.

That's really strange. I did replace my lenses and kept the frames. It was basically the same procedure as ordering new glasses.

To my knowledge opto-technician will map and cut new lenses using your frames or old lenses as a template.

Also looking at the prices, it looks to me that most of the profits are in selling the lenses (unless you buying designer frames for gazillion $). Where I live no-name frames are very often free or for extremely low price (< 30$).

EDIT: also it would be an insane task to mass manufacture specific lenses for specific frames, just due to the fact of variability of eye conditions: near-sightedness, far-sightedness, astigmatism and varying strength on these conditions (cylinder angle and diopter).

I've even had an optician replace the lenses in glasses I just purchased with ones made from a different material. (I don't remember the materials involved, but I was getting chromatic aberrations in the first one.)

I'm confused, at my local optician I just point out a frame I want and he either pulls my measurements from his system or re-measures me and tells me my glasses will be ready in a few days. Hell, one time I had a frame that constantly bent and they ended up just letting me pick a new frame with almost identical glass slots and he just polished off a tiny bit until the glasses fit the new slots. How does the manufacturer fit into any of that?

Well the line that has been told to me is that they receive lenses and frames together, and they can’t sell me the lenses without the frames because then they’d have a frame without lenses. Essentially putting the onus on the manufacturer for why they can’t do it.

Hm? It was my understanding that the companies that sell frames and the ones that sell lenses are mostly independent. Your optician will cut the lenses to fit in your frames.

I assume you must be very hard on frames.

I've had the same Nike frames for probably over 10 years now and the previous ones (same brand & style) for about 5 years until I broke them. My prescription changes very slowly, so I've only updated the lens once. But except for that one frame breakage, I actually have every eyeglass frame I've ever purchased since I first got glasses in 1993.

It's done all the time for high-quality metal frames or vintage design frames. Two vendors:

https://replacementlensexpress.com

https://eyeglasslensdirect.com

Lenses are sold as discs and cut to the shape of your frames in store.

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