Show report: Giving it 100%

Now in its seventh year, 100% Optical returned to Excel London at the start of 2020 with plenty of new companies and products to assist optical practices in the year ahead.

Transitions made its latest Signature Gen 8 photochromic lens available to the UK market on January 3 so the company was the first stop for many visitors at the trade show.

‘The thing with photochromics is that you can make an innovation in one area, but it might mean compromises somewhere else,’ said Carly Rocyn-Jones, Transitions category manager at Essilor. ‘Wearers were very happy with the previous Signature 7 generation going really dark, as dark as their sunglasses. So the challenge here was to protect that while reducing the fade back speed. With Gen 8 we have actually managed to make the product go slightly darker still but also hugely reduced fade back speed.’