Spectacles, the video-recording sunglasses from Snapchat’s parent company, are new and hip, but they don’t have to leave you blind.
Rochester Optical, a Rochester, N.Y.-based maker of specialty lenses, tweeted on Wednesday that it’s planning to sell prescription lenses for Spectacles. Their availability is potentially critical to the success of Spectacles, which are being marketed to mainstream shoppers who may pass on buying the glasses if they cannot get them with corrective lenses.
Rochester Optical already provides prescription lenses and special frames for other connected eyewear, including Google Glass, Sony SmartEyeglass, and Microsoft’s HoloLens.
Pricing for the lenses will vary because they’ll be tailored for each customer, according to Rochester Optical. Many of the company’s other lenses and inserts sell for $99 to $349, so its lenses for Spectacles could be within that range. But even a $99 pair of lenses would be quite pricey considering that the original Spectacles cost $130 themselves.
While Rochester Optical won’t handle insurance claims itself, it will provide customers with invoices and necessary documents so they can submit claims to their providers. Customers should check with their insurance providers because they may not cover such lenses.
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It’s unclear whether Rochester Optical is the only company that will provide prescription lenses for Spectacles. Coins2Day has reached out to Snap and will update if we hear more.
Snap, the newly named parent company of ephemeral messaging app Snapchat, first unveiled its video-recording sunglasses in late September. In November, it began selling them via a bright yellow vending machine that travels to various locations. The idea behind Spectacles is to make it easier for people to record short 10-second videos of what they’re doing, like being on the beach with friends, and share it on Snapchat. Google’s own attempt at connected eyewear, however, didn’t go too well. Glass was widely criticized for making it easy for wearers to record video of people without their knowledge or permission and Google ultimately discontinued its consumer version.
Snap has reportedly filed to go public next year, possibly as early as March.
