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What Juliet Lenses Next?

Sonic

Oakley Enthusiast
67
113
Bucks, UK
Hi,

I have juliets in polished, carbon and plasma - all with prescription lenses.

Currently the carbon frames have fire iridium lenses, the plasma transitional emerald iridium and the polished have polarised ice iridium.

The carbon frames were my first and the fire lenses a classic but the lenses are the oldest and most out of date prescription so i rarely wear them.

The emerald transitions were a big mistake, i never wear them and they just look silly IMO particularly with the heavy plasma juliet frame.

The polished ice iridium are my favourite and have the most up to date prescription. Having the hammerstem arms i wear these frequently.

The problem is i feel the other pairs are wasted, either because of the emerald transition lenses, the older prescription or not having the hammerstem arms.

So, i was thinking of updating 2 of the lenses to my latest prescription.

I'm also thinking of getting some polished carbon x-metal frames if i can find any and some polished carbon blades, also i was thinking of maybe trying to acquire some more juliets with hammerstem arms which i understand are only polished? I'd quite like a set of polished julets with polarised ruby or fire lenses even if i do already have a set of polished juliets as the hammerstem arms are just so much more comfortable to wear.

The question is, what would you do or recommend in my situation? :)

Replacing the fire lenses in my carbon juliets is tempting, but not sure whether the polarised ruby lenses would be better as i prefer polarised lenses.

My brother has a set of emerald lenses with his plasma juliets which i think are gorgeous, and is what i was intending with mine, but the transitional lenses just ruin it - so maybe be worth replacing them with normal emerald lenses?

The polarised deep blue lenses also look very tempting.... sooo many options!... so i leave the floor to you guys... :D
 
ETA it looks like i cant get prescription ruby lenses only polarised OO red iridium which leans me more towards fire iridium.
 
Re: hammerstems....

Yes, basically all polished Juliets have hammerstems while all other Juliets have straight stems. The exceptions are that the Ichiro polished carbon and the 24K Juliets both have hammerstems, but many here would hesitate to customize either of those. You could swap earstems with a pair of R1s, but R1s are worth at 2 - 4x a pair of Juliets, depending on respective conditions. You might also want to consider XX, which is basically a pair of Juliets with hammerstems and slightly taller orbitals.

Re: polished carbon frames...

Polished carbon XS seem pretty common but XS seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it frame.

Re: lenses...

When I'm choosing lenses, before choosing color I first evaluate my needs on base tint (neutral vs. contrast) and light transmission percentage. When do you plan to wear them, doing what? What sort of light conditions are you trying to cover?
 
Yeah i found out about the hammerstems after receiving my 3rd set of juliets and we had some to-and-fro with the dealer and Oakley to find out what was going on. Then i joined the forum and all became clear!

The only Ichiro i can find are these, which are gorgeous, but not sure how typical this is of price? - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111350889971

I'd be tempted to replace the lenses with prescription polarised shallow blue which look pretty original, but that's it.

I've not tried the XS or XX frames, i'd be interested to see how the larger orbitals fit.

Just had a quick skim on ebay and XX seem to be £4-500 a set and i'd need to find out about prescription lenses. There are 2 sets of polished carbon XS at about £400 all-in inc P&P and tax from the US.

I tend to wear mine when i'm driving or walking outdoors.

If i'm outdoors and its bright enough to wear the sunglasses then i'll usually find myself wearing them indoors later as they're prescription... this is where i thought the transitions would work out well, but in reality they're not so good when outside.

I suppose really i should have a couple of different lenses which i wear depending on the strength of light. The ice iridium are great in strong light but not so good when you're indoors, fire iridium seems to work well in most conditions including indoors, but not as good as the ice in bright direct sunlight.
 
There are others here who can speak better on Ichiro prices but it seems kinda high to me. You rarely see them for sale, though. For the XX & XS, if those numbers (4-500, 400) were USD (not converted) then that'd be about right over here; don't know about the UK market.

Your examples (ice & fire) are great to show the differences between neutral and contrast. Non-polarized, ice is neutral with 10% light transmission while fire is contrast with 16% transmission (in comparison, the polarized versions are 9% for ice and 10% for fire). Neutral is best for bright light conditions while contrast is better for less bright / overcast; with the right trans %, contrast is more versatile. But you're not going to find a single lens that works well through the entire range from bright outdoor light to indoors.

So, with the three Juliet frames you have, here's what I'd do:

Leave the ice in the polished. They will be your neutral outdoor bright light pair. Alternative lens choices would be ice polarized or BIP (actually ice polar is my first choice but you already have regular ice).

Put fire polarized in the plasma. They will be your contrast outdoor pair for anything brighter than total overcast up to where it's so bright you need to switch to ice. These are also very good for driving because the contrast adds more detail. Alternative lens choices would be VR28 BIP (which is the best to look through, a great color enhancer), gold polar, or violet polarized (fire polar, gold polar, and VR28 BIP are a little darker than violet polar).

Put oo red polarized in the carbons. They will be your contrast indoor pair and outdoors from overcast / rain up to where you need to switch to fire. Alternative lens choices would be VR28 (though VR50 work better indoors and in the rain) or shallow blue polarized (not deep blue polar; those are neutral).

There are plenty of other options that could work; that's just my personal recommendation. There would be a decent amount of overlap, too (as in conditions that either oo red polar or fire polar would work and either fire polar or ice polar would work). These recommendations are also based on your stated preference for polarized (I feel the same). They are also all lenses that I have and use, including the alternate choices (except for gold polar and VR28; in the VR line I only have VR28 BIP & VR50).

Hope this helps, and good luck!
 
Thank you for the comprehensive reply! :drinks:

There are others here who can speak better on Ichiro prices but it seems kinda high to me. You rarely see them for sale, though.

Yeah that was my thought also. The seller will know this as well and that they're the only set that seem to be available currently so asking a premium price. I'll keep my eyes open!

For the XX & XS, if those numbers (4-500, 400) were USD (not converted) then that'd be about right over here; don't know about the UK market.

For reference I've confirmed that the following lenses are available for Rx (prescription) - R1, XS, XX, Juliet.

The following are not - R2, Half-X.

The UK prices seem to be about the same as the USD equivalent, so $500 in the US means £500 in the UK by the time you factor in shipping, tax etc. Shame there doesn't seem to be more available in Europe.

So, with the three Juliet frames you have, here's what I'd do:

Leave the ice in the polished. They will be your neutral outdoor bright light pair. Alternative lens choices would be ice polarized or BIP (actually ice polar is my first choice but you already have regular ice).

Put fire polarized in the plasma. They will be your contrast outdoor pair for anything brighter than total overcast up to where it's so bright you need to switch to ice. These are also very good for driving because the contrast adds more detail. Alternative lens choices would be VR28 BIP (which is the best to look through, a great color enhancer), gold polar, or violet polarized (fire polar, gold polar, and VR28 BIP are a little darker than violet polar).

Put oo red polarized in the carbons. They will be your contrast indoor pair and outdoors from overcast / rain up to where you need to switch to fire. Alternative lens choices would be VR28 (though VR50 work better indoors and in the rain) or shallow blue polarized (not deep blue polar; those are neutral).

My current lenses are prescription polarised fire iridium and prescription polarised ice iridium.

The lenses available on prescription are unfortunately limited - polarised fire iridium is no longer available, neither is Ruby or Jade along with a few others which is a crying shame.

Polished + polarised ice is a great match which i currently have.

Carbon + OO red polarised again a nice combo but polarised shallow blue is tempting.

The problems come with Plasma + fire would would be nice but fire isn't polarised so very similar to OO red in terms of contrast and transmission. V28 BIP would be the most similar like you say, but i do like fire.

Getting contact lenses would be so much simpler :D
 
+1 for Deep Blue and Shallow Blue - I have had both. I have some good comparison pics if you would like to see them in a juliet cut, just PM me.
 
The only Ichiro i can find are these, which are gorgeous, but not sure how typical this is of price? - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111350889971
Hirotek has been selling Ichiros of different varieties for several years on eBay along with grenades and bobs. I suspect that he is reproducing those resin pieces but that is just an unfounded suspicion.
This pair is actually at the least expensive that I have seen him offer this colorway for. It is a great colorway for sure but before I'd spend $1200 I'd probably do a clone.

The UK prices seem to be about the same as the USD equivalent, so $500 in the US means £500 in the UK by the time you factor in shipping, tax etc. Shame there doesn't seem to be more available in Europe.
Really? At the current exchange ratio of about 60% ($1 usd = £.60) that seems to work better for you in the UK than we here in the US. So today $500 USD = £297. Are taxes that high? God Bless the USA!
 
My all time favorite lense is the G30 Polarized. I don't think that was available for the Juliet. Would probably have to be custom cut.
 
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