Eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica eyes future in tech – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com

Global eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica has long dominated the eyewear market through the many brands under its name.

According to EssilorLuxottica’s report on the company’s first quarter of the year, figures indicate a growth of 5.5% in consolidated revenue — reaching €6,335 million (approximately £5,452 million) — compared to the first quarter of 2023. Popular brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, Prada, and Swarovski are the top frame brands under EssilorLuxottica. At the same time, Stellest and Varilux are the most significant contributors to growth in the lens category. As we previously reported, the Luxottica Group’s prominence in the eyewear industry forms the basis for Italy’s Del Vecchio brothers’ respective fortunes of $3.9 billion (or £3 billion) each.

One of the factors associated with the company’s positive growth is its direct-to-consumer market, reporting a revenue of €3,255 million (£2,801 million) — up 6.3% in the first quarter of 2023. Francesco Milleri, chairman and CEO, and Paul du Saillant, deputy CEO, stated that the company’s pipeline of innovation is to thank for the “solid start to the year” for the company. This includes products like Stellest, Varilux XR series, and the recently launched Transitions Gen S.

EssilorLuxottica has also made notable investments in the tech sector, releasing products such as the Ray-Ban Meta and Nuance Audio smart glasses. Looking to continue this positive momentum, eyewear consumers and fans of the company’s many brands may expect more tech-integrated products in the future.

Ray-Ban’s foray into the Metaverse

One of the most prominent steps forward for EssilorLuxottica in terms of entering the tech sector is its smart glasses under the eyewear brand Ray-Ban. Publicly announced in 2020, the brand’s take on smart glasses began with the Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in collaboration with tech giant Meta alongside the announcement of the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. The Ray-Ban Stories were officially launched a year later.

In 2023, the partnership announced the new and updated Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, improving features in its predecessor, Stories. The latest hardware included a better camera for capturing clearer images and videos and live stream capabilities to Meta’s platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Design-wise, the Ray-Ban Meta is a tech upgrade on Ray-Ban’s prescription glasses frames like the Wayfarer, Headliner, and a newly announced Skyler. Like their traditional counterpart, the Ray-Ban Meta frames come in various colourways and lens types, including transition, tinted, and clear lenses.

Ray-Ban Meta recently introduced AI integration, allowing its wearers to speak with the glasses’ built-in Meta-powered AI assistant. This includes inquiries for summaries, translations, navigation, and product recommendations.

Nuance Audio glasses

The other major step into the tech sector is EssilorLuxottica’s acquisition of Nuance Hearing. This move resulted in a prototype of the Nuance Audio glasses, which premiered at CES 2024. The smart glasses use technology similar to Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 to help their wearer hear better without wearing dedicated hearing aids, blending functionality, accessibility, and fashion.

In an interview with the CEO of listening tech company Nuance Hearing, Ori Goren, Nuance Hearing is described as the leading provider of focused listening technology. The company’s primary goal is to change how people manage auditory distractions and background noise, making it easier to focus and understand speech in noisy environments. In 2022, the company launched the Voice Selector Study — an advanced directional microphone developed to improve speech intelligibility — no doubt playing a crucial role in developing the Nuance Audio glasses.

This collaboration marks the joining of sight and hearing as part of EssilorLuxottica’s core business and strategy. It addresses the need for good hearing by employing innovative technologies, removing the stigma of traditional hearing solutions, and replacing it with comfort and style.

EssilorLuxottica and smart eyewear research

Ultimately, while there’s no telling where and how else the eyewear giant will invest in emerging technologies and digital innovation, the continued investment in the sector remains a core business focus. In 2022, the Italian eyewear manufacturer announced an all-new research centre with Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan), the two entities teaming up to develop the next generation of data glasses. This establishment of the EssilorLuxottica Smart Eyewear Lab was announced to leading Italian politicians and was to receive an investment of €50 million (£42.5 million) at launch.

The project aims to develop hardware, software, and application technologies that enable people to interact with the digital world. It is initially set to run for five years. The goal was to experimentally develop the technical components needed for “a new generation of wearables”. At the time, CEO Francesco Milleri reiterated that “innovation is at the heart of EssilorLuxottica’s business model”—and the same remains seemingly true today.