These Adaptive Sunglasses Are One of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023
Updated: May 24, 2023
You can now skip carrying your reading glasses around on a sunny day!
It’s a sunny day outside, and you’re about to break out your favorite pair of shades. You know, the sunglasses with 100% UV protection to keep your eyes safe and make you look instantly cool. But you know what isn’t cool? Having to switch them off and throw on a pair of reading glasses every time you get a text on your phone or have to read a menu. Sound familiar?
This is the problem co-founders Yariv Haddad and Yoav Yadin set out to solve, and thankfully, they were able to find the perfect solution with their 32°N Sunglasses. These adaptive sunglasses make it easy to switch back and forth between close and far vision with just a swipe of a finger, meaning you don’t have to choose between your specs and your shades on a sunny day ever again.
Named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022, these sunglasses are meant to be a solution for Presbyopia, which is the condition of age-related reduction in near vision. So if you find yourself squinting to read items close to your face, your eye doctor might recommend picking up a pair of reading glasses to make it easier. Which, obviously, means switching back and forth between sunglasses and reading glasses if you’re outside. Thankfully, 32°N Sunglasses became a solution.
What are 32°N Sunglasses?
32°N Sunglasses are the first and only dynamic adaptive sunglasses that make it easy for the user to switch from sunglasses to reading glasses seamlessly.
Instead of having to switch out glasses or deal with bifocals and progressive lenses, these glasses can easily switch based on a user’s needs. With the tap of a finger or an adjustment through an app right on your phone, the user will get the exact focus and type of glasses they need—whether it’s outside on a sunny day (using polarized UV-blocking lenses), in a dark room watching television or under a light as you read.
The magnification of these sunglasses ranges from 0 to 2.5, which is a typical range retailed for reading glasses.
How do the 32°N Sunglasses work?
With just the slide of your finger along the arm of your glasses, 32°N Sunglasses instantly focus on whatever you need to read close by, making it easy to switch back and forth between close and far distances.
These glasses use an adaptive focus lens technology that corrects vision impairment by using pixelated liquid crystal (LC) lenses. They are meant to “perform like the human eye” making it easier to switch back and forth and allow the user to see what they want.
32°N Sunglasses come with an app—available on iOS and Android—to keep you informed about the specs of your glasses through a Bluetooth connection. It includes an all-day battery, is completely silent to use and doesn’t have any moving parts for you to worry about.
How can I get them?
These sunglasses are available on the 32°N website, and retail for $450.
The unisex sunglasses come in four different colors: Clear, Caramel, Black and Tortoise. They are made with patented liquid crystal lenses, have an anti-scratch coating, offer 100% UV protection and are lightweight at just 45 grams.
The measurements of the lenses are 48mm (1.88 inches), the bridge 24mm (0.95 inches) and the arm of the sunglasses approximately 136mm (5.35 inches). If you’re not sure what size you wear now, you can find out by looking at the numbers on your glasses.
When purchased, 32°N offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, a one-year warranty and free shipping.
Sources:
- 32°N Sunglasses
- TIME: “The Best Inventions of 2022, DeepOptics 32°N Adaptive Focus Sunglasses”
