Are good glasses cool but? In sure circles, the reply would seemingly be sure, however there are nonetheless loads of individuals who’ll want extra convincing (and sure, I’m one of them).
This week, we received a touch of a doable new entrant to the good glasses market — one with the potential to place a trendy new twist on tech specs. British tech firm Nothing is greatest identified for making smartphones and headphones, however based on Bloomberg, it is contemplating branching out into smart glasses.
The corporate is hoping to launch the glasses within the first half of 2027, stated Bloomberg, citing folks conversant in the matter. The glasses will reportedly characteristic cameras, microphones and audio system, and have AI capabilities that can largely be dealt with off-device. Nothing declined to touch upon the rumors.
Sensible glasses are booming as a product class, with Counterpoint Research identifying 139% year-over-year progress for the phase within the second half of 2025. The market is dominated by Meta, making it ripe for a disruptive challenger — ideally a relative renegade — to come back in with a contemporary strategy.
I’ve tried good glasses, and I am but to be satisfied.
I am a little bit of a sensible glasses skeptic, however I might get pleasure from seeing a fashion-forward tech model like Nothing department out into eyewear. With the corporate’s emphasis on design, it looks like a pure match for it to deal with wearable tech and hopefully put a singular spin on it that may persuade folks like me that good specs are certainly the best way ahead.
Listed below are three issues I believe Nothing might do to make a splash and set itself aside.
A continuation of the corporate’s clear aesthetic
Nothing has constructed its model round a clear design language that exposes the underlying circuitry and wires inside its merchandise. It is nostalgic, daring and imaginative — and crucially would translate simply and successfully to eyewear.
Clear frames are already very a lot a factor on the planet of glasses, and even Meta has experimented with them. However I really feel assured that Nothing might apply its signature aesthetic sensibilities in a approach that might be distinctive and unique. It might play with colour — the blue and pink seen on the Nothing Phone 4A and 4A Pro, for instance.
Clear design is in Nothing’s DNA.
After I assume again to my dialog final month at Cellular World Congress with Nothing’s chief brand officer, Charlie Smith, it strikes me that branching out into wearables feels not solely like a pure subsequent step for Nothing, however one thing the model is significantly better positioned to deal with than its much less trendy rivals.
Smith, contemporary off the boat from luxurious style model Loewe, spoke of being impressed by Nothing’s “rebellious creativity” and the much-needed spirit of enjoyable it was injecting into an business lengthy been dominated by minimalism. “There’s one thing about this sort of retrofuturism, this nostalgia that we’re tapping into — individuals are loving it,” Smith stated.
“Private expertise is definitely loads about self-expression,” he continued. “Our gadgets are actually like an extension of us.”
Bonus factors from me if Nothing finds a technique to incorporate components of its glowing glyph interface into the glasses.
A collaboration with a British indie model
In a market flooded with gadgets made by large companies based mostly within the US, South Korea and China, UK-based startup Nothing feels just like the closest factor the cellphone business has to an indie darling. What higher technique to cement that standing than by collaborating with one other British impartial model?
Meta’s collaborations with Ray-Ban and Oakley have been a profitable system in its personal bid to ascertain good glasses as a mainstream product class. However there’s additionally one thing predictable about a big firm collaborating with one other massive firm. Wayfarers is perhaps timeless and simply wearable by anybody with a face, however they do not precisely scream unique considering or a robust sense of private type.
It could be rather more thrilling for Nothing to work with up-and-coming British designers (it did, in any case, host a launch occasion final month at iconic London design college Central Saint Martin’s). Equally, it might decide to affix forces with a extra established designer, comparable to JW Anderson. Certain, the ensuing glasses won’t be a lowest-common-denominator product worn by each Silicon Valley govt, however that is probably not Nothing’s vibe.
Fortuitously, there’s precedent for Nothing selecting impartial British manufacturers to work with slightly than hitting up the business’s most recognizable names. Its audio collaboration with KEF has already yielded among the most distinctive headphones available on the market. I am assured it might do the identical with glasses.
Nothing’s KEF collaboration within the flesh.
A serious concentrate on audio and music
Let’s not overlook that earlier than Nothing was a smartphone firm, it was a headphones firm.
The experience it has established in audio over the previous few years would possibly simply give it a aggressive edge over most corporations at the moment making good glasses. Many individuals have been shocked by how good the sound high quality might be on current good specs, together with Meta’s, however Nothing has a chance to take it to the following stage.
Nothing’s earbuds had been its first product.
Encouragingly, Nothing’s audio credentials had been one other factor Smith introduced up in our dialog.
“The audio facet of the enterprise is actually essential to us due to the connection to music tradition,” he stated. “We love the concept of [our community] being tech and music and style… like this subsequent technology of creatives all coming collectively across the model.”
Embracing music tradition might be a key differentiator for Nothing and assist make good glasses a extra compelling product for people who find themselves but to be bought on video seize and AI options.
Prior to now, I’ve argued that headphones are the ultimate AI wearable, however I am ready to revise my opinion if these headphones occur to be inside a pair of glasses I genuinely like to put on.
