In the vanguard for 50 years, Varilux has made its mark as the worldwide* leader in progressive lenses. The pioneering spirit that defines the brand has not been challenged since 1959, the year when progressive lenses were invented by Bernard Maitenaz, a young optical and mechanical engineer from the Société des Lunetiers.
This major 20th-century invention revolutionized the world of ophthalmic optics and even today continues to boost the well-being of several million people with presbyopia. Through innovation, Varilux makes increasingly natural, high-performance visual acuity a reality for each and every wearer.
The individual has well and truly been at the heart of Varilux's creative passion for over half a century. A series of major advancements in physiological optics and mathematics, in addition to increasingly innovative manufacturing processes, have enabled Varilux to launch six successive generations of lenses with increasingly improved resolution. Farewell to half-eye and bifocal lenses that break up the visual field!
Worldwide success greeted this consumer product, which was acknowledged as the market quality standard and received recognition from the scientific community with no less than inclusion in the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie collection in 2007. With the collaboration of universities, scientists and professionals from all countries, Essilor's 500 researchers are hard at work every day on the production of new designs and surfaces – tested via the dioptric method – and the quest for the lens of the future: an active, intelligent lens design able to change in real time to adapt to every situation, all day.
The latest revolutionary innovations have already paved the way for a new era. Varilux Physio, which incorporates wavefront control technology borrowed from adaptive optics used in astronomy, led to the first lens designed for High Resolution Vision in 2006. Perfected in 2008, the most recent lens – Varilux Ispeo New Edition, a lens tailored to an individual's visual behavior – is a spectacular development resulting from research into optic solutions via virtual reality.
Experimentation with virtual reality, as presented in Varilux Expérience, today opens the way to broad research vistas and heralds progress in the development of leading technological solutions, all to the benefit of wearers everywhere. There's no doubt about it: these lenses will be of huge benefit to the world's seven billion individuals, one-third of whom will be affected by presbyopia from about age 40 onwards.
Today, this same pioneering spirit – born of boldness, patience, determination and a passion for research, all solid Varilux characteristics – drives some 30,000 employees at today's Essilor, a multinational that dominates the ophthalmic optical market worldwide. Varilux's stellar human, technological, scientific and industrial adventure thus continues with the same eagerness to take on future challenges.
Stronger than ever and proud of its past, Varilux's 50th anniversary finds the company with goals and enthusiasm intact.
*There are 300 million Varilux wearers worldwide, and one in every four of the planet’s eyeglass wearers has Essilor lenses. A must-read: The Varilux Epic, written by Jean-Charles Le Roux, Éditions Perrin, July 2007.
Source: Xavier Fontanet, CEO of the Essilor Group
