EssilorLuxottica is extending its partnership with Meta “well into the next decade”. The world leader in optics, owner of iconic brands such as Ray-Ban, plans to develop several waves of smart glasses with the Palo Alto tech giant.
After two generations of smart glasses developed hand in hand, EssilorLuxottica continues to work with Meta.
This Tuesday, September 17, the global eyewear manufacturing and distribution giant, owner of Ray-Ban, Oakley, Oliver People, Persol, Supreme and numerous luxury house licenses (Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Miu Miu, Moncler, Diesel …) announced it was extending its “long-term agreement” with Facebook’s parent company, forged in 2019.
The amount of the agreement was not disclosed.
A follow-up to the success of Ray-Ban Meta
From 2021, EssilorLuxottica began its foray alongside Meta into connected eyewear. While this first generation – Ray-Ban Stories – did not meet with success, the second, launched in October 2023, was a big hit.
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, born of this partnership, combine design and functionality. It’s possible to make phone calls, share photos and videos, listen to music and, above all, broadcast live content on Facebook and Instagram. The device is equipped with a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera and a 5-microphone system. A multimodal artificial intelligence function was even added last May for American and Canadian customers.
These Ray-Ban Meta models continued their exponential growth in the first half of 2024. They contributed to the Franco-Italian group’s sales growth of 5.3% at constant exchange rates to 13.3 billion euros, compared with 12.8 billion euros over the same period in 2023. The only downside was that North America delivered the slowest growth (+1.4%) of all markets over the period, compared with +5.3% in EMEA and +4.6% in Asia-Pacific.
In mid-summer, rumors circulated that Meta was increasingly interested in a pair of glasses as a new connected object after the watch, to the point of initiating discreet talks with a view to acquiring a 5% stake in EssilorLuxottica. “We have the opportunity to make eyewear the next major technology platform, also integrating a fashion dimension,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Contacted by The Wall Street Journal in July, EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri confirmed that he had “been informed of the good intention” of the American tech giant to acquire a stake in the Franco-Italian optics specialist.
Alongside the announcement of the extension of its partnership with Meta, EssilorLuxottica’s CEO also indicated that he was working on an innovative new product for the US market by the end of the year : glasses with integrated miniature hearing aids.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the third generation of connected glasses should be available by 2025.
EssilorLuxottica made two major acquisitions this summer: Supreme, the fashion brand rooted in the world of skateboarding and streetwear, for $1.5 billion, and Heidelberg Engineering, a German company specializing in digital diagnostic and surgical visualization technologies, as well as in healthcare IT solutions for medical ophthalmology.
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Read also > EssilorLuxottica acquires Supreme
Featured Photo: © Ray-Ban
