Finding the Best Glasses

For tools that we use everyday, I believe it is worthwhile to get the highest quality available, be it a desk, shoes, or the kitchen sink drainer. This is a story about my quest to be the first person in a million people to have the best eyeglasses.

A year ago, I started noticing that text became blurry when I read. It had been a few years since my last trip to eye doctor, I thought it was due time to check in again for astigmatism and other optical issues. I wanted the best eyewear out there, and thus began a 1-month deep dive into the rabbit hole of optometry and optical lenses.

Best Lenses Technology

Learning basic optometry was unavoidable. Do I remember the meaning of photochromic, ABBE value, freeform, UVB/UVA, specific gravity, and other terminology? No.

I do remember spending hours on the different materials, the manufacturing process, industry news, and visiting old forums for the nerdiest of optical nerds. I even watched optician training videos as if I was an optician student.

My research resulted in several pages of notes, but let’s skip the dreary details. Here’s the summary:

Eyeglass frames

There are too many brands for frames like Air Optix or Ray-Ban, but most brand uses the same Italian manufacturer, Luxottica.

Moreover, frames are about the fit and personal preference, picking frames is a matter of taste and comfort.

Instead, we will focus on the more objective quality of eyeglasses: the lenses.

Eyeglass lenses

• Types of lenses include crown glass, CR-39 plastic, Trivex, high-index, polycarbonate, Tribrid, Nova-Quatrex
• Each material between the thickness (refractive index) and the clarity (ABBE value) of the lenses

The immediately obvious is that the best quality glasses means the best quality lenses.

Crown glass was my first choice because it provides the most clear vision, but this centuries-old material is fragile and the last manufacturer of glass shut down in 2019. This was probably the right outcome from a safety aspect, but it does limit maximum ABBE that’s possible in commercial lenses.

From One Rabbit Hole to Another

From my search, I realized only two types of lenses have the right combination of thinness and clarity: Nova-Quatrex and Tribrid.

Tribrid 1.6 is thinner while still retaining clarity

The only thing I found about Nova-Quatrex is an ancient forum post. Dead end.

My last hope was Tribrid, invented by PPG Industries in 2013. This was likely the newest technology for lenses, which unfortunately means low availability. Out of the large manufacturing labs that dominate the market (Zeiss, Hoya, Essilor, Shamir), none produces Tribrid.

Only an independent lab, Cherry Optical, carried Tribrid starting in 2019. Since eyewear technology doesn’t see much innovation and new technology develops over many years, this is the cutting edge!

Take this with a grain of salt since it is from PPG sales

Since this is an indie lab, their customers are usually small indie mom & pop opticians that have not been contracted by the big manufacturers yet. Being a shy internet surfer who avoids strangers, of course I sent an email first to their CEO, who did not reply. This forced me to have to call their office somewhere in the middle of a flyover state.

Trivia: apparently Tribrid lenses emit a pungent odor in the lab, so thanks is needed for our brave lab technicians for their olfactory sacrifice

I imagine Ryan from their customer support was surprised when he picked up the phone, expecting to answer a question from an optometry client, to hear a random person asking them to reveal their client’s info! When asked about it, he didn’t even know and had to consult their sales department. Fortunately they were gracious with getting me that info.

According to Cherry, there was only one place near me (and by “near”, I mean a significant time on the road): a family business that was run out of a family home that was renovated into a storefront. The business owner and her son was amazed at the length to which I would go for my eyewear. When I told her about Tribrid, the owner didn’t even know about this technology after 40 years in the business. It was exciting for us both to get our hands on Tribrid lenses!

And that is how I became the first person among millions of people to get the best and newest glasses tech.