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When I was in China I wanted to get a cheap pair of prescription glasses. So I did, in an underground subway mall. Took 30 minutes. They (definitely not an eye

When I was in China I wanted to get a cheap pair of prescription glasses. So I did, in an underground subway mall. Took 30 minutes. They (definitely not an eye doctor, more of a small shop owner) used a small handheld device to measure my prescription and then told me to come back in 30 minutes after I had chosen frames. I paid $40.

mncharity 7y ago
Neat - it looks like handheld ophthalmic auto refractometers are $4k-ish on alibaba.
canada_dry 7y ago
Ditto. In Beijing there's a multi-story building full of stores selling glasses. I walked around until someone spoke to me in English, they used a gizmo to automatically measure my prescription. I picked out a brand name pair of frames. The salesman told me to come back in an hour. Voila a cheap (~$40US) spare pair of glasses. A former optometrist of mine once gave me a 5 minute lecture on how I must buy my glasses from him because he makes no money from doing exams. Cry me a river... guess ya should have gone into dentistry.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  I found that the lenses quality wasn’t as good when buying in Beijing. They have (or just use?) better tech in the states for churning out lenses that aren’t overly heavy or thick. Perhaps it’s just an artifact of the glasses costing a few hundred kuai.
  - conductr 7y ago
    I’ve seen US based manufacturing. There is a mix of material type selection. But there is also a lot of machinery and automation being used. Also stringent QA. Nothing done in an hour was done well, this much I know.
    - Doxin 7y ago
      Honestly I'd be highly surprised if producing a single pair of glasses would take more than an hour end-to-end, as long as you aren't grinding them by hand. With modern plastic lenses it's basically a CNC machining operation followed by a couple of polishing steps. There's no reason you can't do a pair with basically no automation aside from the CNC in an hour easily. And that includes sticking them in a lensmeter to check if the prescription matches for QA. Of course more complex things such as antireflective coatings add a sputtering step to the process which might be a bit much to expect a shop to do in-house.
  - corporate_shi11 7y ago
    I will say that the pair of glasses or received was not as good as one I could have bought in the States. The Chinese glasses I got were usable, and I did use them for years, but when they broke and I purchased glasses in the US going through the standard process, I was reminded of how high quality glasses here can be. This is reminiscent of the principle that marginal improvements become exponentially more expensive as we seek ever more improvement. Sure I could get a decent pair of glasses in China for $40, but to get a truly great pair of glasses, the increase in cost that comes with that quality will be disproportionate to the quality itself.
- ByzantineO6 7y ago
  I feel for folks who thought they were getting a decent income for life by purchasing a professional credential only to have technology-Lucy pull away the football. I understand their desperation. Who knew I should have taken Hindi instead of algo 610?

mncharity 7y ago

Neat - it looks like handheld ophthalmic auto refractometers are $4k-ish on alibaba.

canada_dry 7y ago

Ditto. In Beijing there's a multi-story building full of stores selling glasses. I walked around until someone spoke to me in English, they used a gizmo to automatically measure my prescription. I picked out a brand name pair of frames. The salesman told me to come back in an hour. Voila a cheap (~$40US) spare pair of glasses. A former optometrist of mine once gave me a 5 minute lecture on how I must buy my glasses from him because he makes no money from doing exams. Cry me a river... guess ya should have gone into dentistry.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago
I found that the lenses quality wasn’t as good when buying in Beijing. They have (or just use?) better tech in the states for churning out lenses that aren’t overly heavy or thick. Perhaps it’s just an artifact of the glasses costing a few hundred kuai.
- conductr 7y ago
  I’ve seen US based manufacturing. There is a mix of material type selection. But there is also a lot of machinery and automation being used. Also stringent QA. Nothing done in an hour was done well, this much I know.
  - Doxin 7y ago
    Honestly I'd be highly surprised if producing a single pair of glasses would take more than an hour end-to-end, as long as you aren't grinding them by hand. With modern plastic lenses it's basically a CNC machining operation followed by a couple of polishing steps. There's no reason you can't do a pair with basically no automation aside from the CNC in an hour easily. And that includes sticking them in a lensmeter to check if the prescription matches for QA. Of course more complex things such as antireflective coatings add a sputtering step to the process which might be a bit much to expect a shop to do in-house.
- corporate_shi11 7y ago
  I will say that the pair of glasses or received was not as good as one I could have bought in the States. The Chinese glasses I got were usable, and I did use them for years, but when they broke and I purchased glasses in the US going through the standard process, I was reminded of how high quality glasses here can be. This is reminiscent of the principle that marginal improvements become exponentially more expensive as we seek ever more improvement. Sure I could get a decent pair of glasses in China for $40, but to get a truly great pair of glasses, the increase in cost that comes with that quality will be disproportionate to the quality itself.
ByzantineO6 7y ago
I feel for folks who thought they were getting a decent income for life by purchasing a professional credential only to have technology-Lucy pull away the football. I understand their desperation. Who knew I should have taken Hindi instead of algo 610?