From Ray-Ban and Oakley to Nuance Audio, EssilorLuxottica is redefining eyewear with smart glasses that combine hearing support and fashion in one wearable device.

EssilorLuxottica is the world’s largest eyewear conglomerate. It owns Ray-Ban, Oakley, Oliver Peoples, Persol, and Costa; operates retail banners including Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, and GrandVision; and owns EyeMed, the second-largest vision insurance provider in the United States.

That scale gives the company an unusual vantage point on where consumer eyewear is heading, and one of its recent bets is on wellness technology. Nuance Audio, its newest release, is a line of glasses built to help adults with mild hearing loss, aimed at people who want hearing support without wearing a visible hearing aid.

It’s a small category for now, but it raises a larger question: whether frames can become a platform for health features, and whether a company that already dominates lenses and retail can own that shift, too.

EssilorLuxottica is the product of a 2018 merger between two industry heavyweights: French lens maker Essilor and Italian frame maker Luxottica. The combination gave the company a vertically integrated system with control over nearly every step of the process, from design and manufacturing to wholesale distribution and retail.

That integration is a large part of why it can attempt a product like Nuance Audio, which requires both technical depth and a working understanding of aesthetics and consumer behavior. The premise is simple: help people hear better without asking them to compromise on style. Now in its second iteration, Nuance Audio has added new designs and colorways, with in-house designers drawing on styles from the Paris and New York fashion week runways.

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