I don’t quite follow, why would you need a prescription to get glasses made? Not the case on Germany where health insurance doesn’t cover the cost of glasses anyways for some reason. The test at the optometrist is usually quite cheap (free if you buy glasses there).
I just got new glasses and they weren’t cheap (over 700€) but if I hadn’t bought a fancy and expensive frame and added all the extras to the glasses themselves (ultra-thin, anti-reflective etc.) I probably could have gotten them for 200€ while still getting optimum optical results. Almost no money in aviation terms, especially as my glasses usually last 3 years or so.
Peter wrote:
Does anyone know of an outlet which will produce simple glasses without demanding an official prescription?
http://www.spex4less.com will make lenses, either for their own frames, or for frames that you supply. You don’t need a prescription, you can just type in the values. They will even make varifocals, though this involves them sending you blank lenses in your frames, you sending them a photo of yourself in them following specific instructions, and them finally making and fitting them.
I had them make some fairly high end varifocals (i.e. lenses which cost about £350) made by them. They were cheaper than the high street by about £100. However, the more significant saving was that they would put lenses in frames that I supplied, which nobody on the high street was willing to do. I bought the frames elsewhere online for £125 which on the high street retail for £500. So all told it cost about £500 instead of £950. That being said, I’ve never been hugely happy with their varifocals. I’ve been wearing varifocals for several years and am quite used to them and when I get new ones normally it takes no time to adjust, but it took me about 2 months with these and the vision still wasn’t that good. I think next time I will avoid using an online lens supply for varifocals, though I am sure for single value lenses or even bifocals they’re fine.
That’s for that, David. I will try them. The site looks just right for what I was initially after.
Re your varifocals, I would not exclude the possibility of them being made simply wrongly. I have had that seveal times, and apparently it is not all that uncommon to get the cylinder axis wrong. I also once got a very duff eye test done by Specsavers (they probably made a typo in the prescription) which cost me hundreds in wrong glasses afterwards.
My local optician will put lenses in my frames, but he increases the price 2x to 3x 
The lenses is where the “cartel” operates.
The manufacturing costs of the lenses is in he low double digits, and for varifocals, pretty much the same regardless of the exact lens shape or the refractive lens material used.
The actual materials costs pennies, they are simply plastics or coatings applied to it, the cost is in getting them in the shape you want, and once you are in varifocals, these days they come out of CNC machines that can do varifocals, and it is pretty much the same machine for any reasonable varifocal prescription.
To get the maximum amount from people who can afford it, the industry then introduces additional “features” and charges for it. Or, to put it less politely, the deliberately produce poor lenses for the cheaper price points.
Example – lowest priice point 75. But these lenses “do not fit all frames”, so you can only get them in ugly ones. These exist to cater fkr the poorer, and nobody with a little bit more money and a modicum of taste will buy these.This is complete BS, since the lenses come all in the same hge size and are cut down to fit the frame.
Next price point – 125. You can now get all frames, and maybe a slightly wider varifocal zone, but the salespeople point out that that is a bit poor, so they can up-sell you to more expensive lenses. These lenses are aimed at the style-conscious poorer people. Again BS since the exact lens shape makes no difference to the manufacturing cost.
At the high end, you end up with 200, where you get a mich wider varifocal zone.
And then you can spend money on coatings, weight, tint etc.
All of the above is designed to do one thing – to get everyone to buy the best lenses they can afford. And they objectively are better lenses, but the margins on these are huge.
In the dim and distant past, when individual lenses were hand-ground by the opticians int the back office these price differences made some sense.
But now, they very cleverly make you pay 1000 euros for lenses that cost maybe 30
Most lenses come out of a trade lens catalogue. I was told by one guy that you need just 600 lenses to make any single prescription (not bifocals) between -6 and +6. Given that the steps are 0.25, one could probably work it out (some combinations don’t need to be done because they are rare and if they do, the customer will pay whatever it costs). The lenses are normally 65mm diameter – I am looking at one empty package right now, You just cut them out to fit the frame, taking care to get the cylinder axis right. I reckon these lenses cost low single digits, because you can get finished glasses for £20 online. In fact you can buy a 200-piece test kit for £150 on Ebay (from China) so there you go…
The High Street shops are crippled by business rates; probably every country has a similar system to maintain their High Street full of only highly profitable shops.
I also get the impression that there is a “cartel” on the High Street to offer nicer quality frames only in the designer-name ranges i.e. at a high price.
I buy “throw away” glasses for €7,50, single focus so you are right.
You can buy reading glasses for less than that, but I think the point most don’t appreciate is that getting astigmatism corrected too makes reading glasses much nicer to use for long periods. That correction is essential for distance, but most people seem happy to not bother with reading glasses.
Cobalt wrote:
But now, they very cleverly make you pay 1000 euros for lenses that cost maybe 30
I think you are underestimating what goes into making a good piece of glass. For example the most expensive TV camera lenses contain a few kilo’s of glass and cost around EUR 100,000. These are used for the sports matches in the stadiums.
One piece of glass is not like another piece of glass!
Coatings add cost also.
But in general is you buy standard lenses (in the range up to 10 dioptres, you’re cheap because they are mass produced). Above 10 dioptres they get expensive a piece.
Very few people use purpose-built TV camera lenses for their eyesight correction… as you say, eye correction lenses are mass produced, and even varifocals come from machinery specialising in turning them out quickly. They are not lovingly handcrafted.
Coatings are part of the overall price differentiation approach. For example, if there are two different antireflective coatings available the cost difference between the two is minimal. But from a sales psychology approach, almost everyone will buy the best coating they can reasonably afford.
I had my first pair of varifocals about ten years ago; They were from a well know french brand, fitted by a competent optometrist.
After two days I returned them, saying that it was like having tunnel vision, only the centre part was in focus. The optometrist then changed my glasses to Seiko varifocal brand, serveral times more expensive, but night and day difference, I can now see from left to right in focus without moving my head.
Yes they cost about 700€ per pair but I haven’t regretted for one second.
