Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, recently acquired a 3% stake in the world’s biggest eyewear producer EssilorLuxottica. The Franco-Italian holding company designs, produces and markets iconic eyewear brands including Ray-Ban, Oakley and Persol, as well as prestigious licensed brands such as Burberry, Chanel, Coach, Diesel and Dolce & Gabbana.
According to Bloomberg, Meta wants to further increase its stake to 5%, and while this may seem modest, the implications are huge. It’s a strategic alignment that signals that smart eyewear, a category that has long struggled to gain mainstream traction, may finally be having its moment.
This is not the first time the tech giant has partnered with EssilorLuxottica, having first teamed up with Ray-Ban in 2021 to launch Ray-Ban Stories. Initial adoption was quite modest, but their second-generation smart glasses, launched in 2023, moved a reported 2-million units by the end of 2024.
Tech Crunch reported late last year that “Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are the top-selling product in 60% of all Ray-Ban stores throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa”. The detail came from EssilorLuxottica CFO Stefano Grassi, who revealed during the eyewear giant’s earnings call last week that Ray-Ban Meta proved to be a significant driver for the company’s sales.”
In parts of Europe, the product was reportedly outselling traditional Ray-Bans — and that’s before the full suite of artificial intelligence (AI) features even rolled out. EssilorLuxottica now plans to scale up production to 10-million units a year by 2026, a clear signal of confidence in the category’s long-term appeal. For Meta, it’s proof that AI doesn’t have to look like a lab experiment — it can be beautiful, wearable, and desirable. Smart glasses, it seems, are quietly doing what headsets never could: becoming objects of everyday luxury.
Smart eyewear has hovered at the edge of innovation for more than a decade, but never quite crossed into the mainstream consumer market. When Meta and Ray-Ban joined forces in 2021, their collaboration was initially met with scepticism from both tech and fashion insiders due to previous attempts like Google Glass having fallen flat. Poor aesthetics and limited functionality hindered adoption for Google Glass, which was eventually shelved in 2015. The Meta and Ray-Ban partnership flipped that script by prioritising aesthetics, familiarity, and brand equity.
Rather than launching an overtly “techy” product, Meta embedded its hardware into Ray-Ban’s classic Wayfarer frame, instantly giving the glasses cultural cachet and wearability. They came in three classic Ray-Ban styles: the Wayfarer, Round and Meteor.
In the wake of Meta and Ray-Ban’s success with their second-generation smart eyewear recent reports have indicated that Google is now working on a new iteration of its Google Glass project to compete in the smart eyewear category, but, besides Meta and Ray-Ban’s success with one product, why would Google Glass’ re-entry be more viable now?
There is a perfect storm of trends as the wearables market has matured quite significantly over the past decade. Consumers have become accustomed to interacting with devices via voice assistants, and the idea of hands-free computing doesn’t feel so alien any more. Apple Watch and Airpods have paved the way for intimate, quasi-invisible tech.
While privacy concerns persist, they, too, have shifted. Smartphones already capture so much data, and the public conversation has evolved. There’s also an increased demand for tech that blends seamlessly into daily life. As Generative AI becomes more integrated into daily tasks, glasses that allow real-time, on-the-go access to AI models offer an entirely new level of productivity and convenience. Meta’s built-in AI assistant, for example, can now translate street signs, identify landmarks and even summarise audio, all through voice command. Of course there’s the fashion factor, which ticks all the boxes for young, fashion-conscious millennials and Gen Zers.
Apple has reportedly been working on its own version of wearable glasses for years, and the latest reports suggest it is working on at least four smart glass variations in response to Meta, with the aim of going to market in 2027.
“These reportedly won’t have a display; just like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses but they’ll have audio playback, voice control, a camera, and AI environmental sensing. Apple’s version will also have a gesture recognition user interface,” notes a report by Mashable.
Korean publication ETNews reports that Samsung has plans to launch this year, but Meta’s head start, combined with EssilorLuxottica’s design pedigree, may give them a crucial advantage as experts peg smart eyewear as the essential consumer electronics product of the AI age.
It doesn’t hurt that EssilorLuxottica is home to some of the world’s most recognisable luxury brands, which gives Meta a notable upper hand in the coming frame wars.
The road ahead is not without obstacles for smart eyewear. Battery life, app ecosystems and pricing all remain major challenges. But if the past decade has taught tech companies anything, it’s that the future belongs not just to the most advanced technology, but also to those that combine this with maximum functionality and wearability.
