The rose-tinted inevitability of smart glasses

THIRTEEN years ago, if someone had suggested that I wear a computer, camera and microphone on my face and walk about unilaterally recording my private surroundings and unsuspecting individuals around me, I would have laughed rudely.

In fact, I did laugh rudely in 2013 before dismissing out of hand Google Glass, the ill-fated smart glasses that would eventually flop.

In 2025, however, people did a lot less laughing and a lot more buying. Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica more than tripled sales of its Meta artificial intelligence (AI) glasses in 2025, selling more than seven million units – up from the two million that the firm sold in 2023 and 2024 combined.