Essilor's Tim Thurn introducing the new Crizal Sapphire multi-coat in Auckland

“Light is everywhere, it carries us away with its whirlwind of intense colours, sparkles and reflections. But what if all these reflections were becoming a source of discomfort….” Said the voice-over on the new Crizal Sapphire launch video at Auckland’s Essilor platinum partners’ meeting. “It’s interesting to look at what’s changed in our environment and why more-than-ever we need multi-coat today,” followed Essilor’s Tim Thurn, introducing the company’s new anti-reflection coating.

Designed to reduce reflections from all angles on the front and back of the lens, Essilor’s new Crizal Sapphire coating has now been launched across Australasia in a dual promotion with its new Varilux-X series lens.

Every spectacle wearer knows how annoying reflections can be and with the world becoming brighter, with natural or artificial light, the more reflections there

are, explained Thurn adding Essilor’s research shows light reflection on glasses impacts a patient’s habits in ways they may not even realise. “I see people with great frames, but with no multi-coat on their glasses. It’s about half the population and they are going to have back and front surface reflections, they are going to have dispersion from dust and smudges, and ghosting and internal reflections, which is something else we don’t talk about as much as we should.”

About 80% of patients complain about reflections on their specs, he said, with about half moving their heads to avoid reflections and about a third who will just remove their glasses. “So, this really impacts our daily lives.”

Crizal Sapphire, endorsed by the Cancer Society of Australia and New Zealand for its UV protection, incorporates technology to control light from all directions, making it one of the clearest multi-coats on the market, and almost invisible on the wearer, explained Essilor’s chief operating office Pierre Longerna in an accompanying press release. “The research and development team patented 10 new technologies and Crizal Sapphire UV lenses reduce reflections by up to 30% more than the next best anti-reflection lens.”

In wearer tests, 90% said they were satisfied with the lens, but a staggering 91% said it was their preferred lens over their current lens, said Thurn. “It’s simply the most transparent multi-coat I’ve ever seen.”