I really do like spectacle lenses, and would actually call myself a bit of a lens geek.
I like each new product and the innovation that goes with it, and I really enjoy widening my lens knowledge and learning about the features of a new design that the optical industry has brought to the market. Many new products are brilliant designs of varifocals or occupational lenses, many are great new single-vision products and some are ground-breaking coatings or tints.
However, there is one type of product, namely the humble bifocal, that in recent years, it seems, has been pushed further and further down the pecking order. So I really got excited when I learned that a new bifocal lens had been launched. That’s something I feared I would never see again. Yes, bifocals are still available, even though from my experience their existence is increasingly overlooked.
Enter the Shamir Duo lens. An advanced freeform bifocal lens that offers surface continuity and eliminates the visible line. Hallelujah!
Once, bifocals really were revolutionary, just like many new types of lenses we read about in this publication on a regular basis. When the first type of bifocal lenses were invented, they must have made such an impact, and they have made an enormous difference to so many people’s lives all over the world. At that time, many people probably didn’t even envisage they would see the day when you could use the same pair of spectacles for both distance and near vision, something we just take for granted today.
Now fast forward a couple of centuries and we have the latest design of the bifocal and it seems it has been worth waiting for. An advanced freeform bifocal and, what’s more, a real bifocal with no visible line. After many years of optical professionals trying to describe varifocals to patients as bifocals without the line, we really do now have a bifocal without the line. And how great does that feel?
Now we can truly offer a solution to someone who loves wearing bifocals but doesn’t like the visible line, which is often associated with the ageing process. This is also a real option to presbyopes who struggle with varifocal adaptation, and a great new addition to the lens portfolio for us all. This is something we should all welcome and celebrate. ?