Let us be clear...we LOVE the styling of Oakely's Juliet x-metal sunglasses. However, with all of Oakley's high-tech sounding material, one would think their lenses would be tough as nails. Ah... no, sorry, not so.
The coating on Oakley's Juliet X-Metal lenses may be optically true, the colors correct, and blocks out 100% of whatever, but they are wimps when it comes to scratch-resistance toughness. The lenses will be scratched by the slightest contact with anything harder than cat fur and will likely need to be replaced annually with normal use. We did the first replacement back in March of this year. Our set only managed to make it through Spring and Summer.
The Juliet X-Metal sunglasses are great for when we just want to be posing, but as we also want to USE them, we now factor in an annual cost of $50 to $80 for lens replacement. There are several sources for replacement lenses. Since the last replacement was done using Oakley OEM lenses, we thought we would go after-market with this next pair. This set of burgundy-color replacement lenses is from ExoVISTA. They were about 1/3 the price...via EBay, of course. We'll report back on how these ExoVISTA lenses performed in the Spring.
Now that we have used these Oakley Juliets for a while, here are some tips from our experience with the sunglasses:
- Always store them in the pouch when not in use
- Get a hard case if you want to carry them around in a backpack
- EXPECT to replace the lenses as they WILL get scratched
- Scan Craigslist and EBay for the best prices
These Juliet X-Metal sunglasses have drool-worthy looks, but can be expensive to maintain. So go into this "relationship" with eyes open :-) Unless one carries $100 bills as pocket change, one would have to be mental to pay full prices for these sunglasses and/or lens replacements. We purchased our Oakley Juliet X-Metal on Craigslist for pennies on the dollar. Replacement lenses are available from a variety of sources (Sunglasses shops, Internet, etc...). The least expensive we have found to date were on EBay. [Permalink] - Oakley Lens Replacement: ExoVISTA
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