Questions worth asking

Yes. Every frame listed on this site is genuine branded stock, not a replica, a copy or an unbranded lookalike. You do not have to take that on trust: Ray-Ban publishes its own list of stockists, and Aweh Eyewear appears on it. There is a link to that store locator at the foot of every page on this site, and it goes to Ray-Ban rather than to us.

Use Ray-Ban's own store locator at ray-ban.com and search your area. A stockist that is not listed there is not authorised, whatever its website says. We link to the locator directly rather than reproducing a badge image, because a badge image can be copied and a listing cannot.

Arnette, Hugo, Levi's, Move, Oakley, Ray-Ban, Under Armour and Vogue. Each brand has its own collection page, and every frame on it is the manufacturer's own product in the manufacturer's own colourways.

Usually because of where the stock came from. Authorised stock is bought through the brand's South African distribution, which sets a floor on what it can cost. A frame offered well below the going rate is worth a question or two about its source before you buy, particularly if the seller does not appear on the brand's own stockist list.

Frames are supplied as they come from the manufacturer. If you need to know exactly what is included with a particular model before ordering, ask us and we will check that specific item rather than generalise.

Every product page lists the model code and its measurements in the order the industry uses: lens width, bridge width and temple length, all in millimetres. The quickest guide is a pair you already own, since those three numbers are usually printed on the inside of the temple arm. Match those and the fit will be close.

Open one temple arm and look along the inside face. You will find something like 52□18 145: that is a 52mm lens, an 18mm bridge and a 145mm temple. Some brands print it on the inside of the bridge instead.

They are the manufacturer model code and colourway. On a Ray-Ban RB3548N 002/71 51, RB3548N is the model, 002/71 identifies the frame and lens colour combination, and 51 is the lens width in millimetres. Searching that code on our site brings up every colourway we hold.

The usual guidance is contrast: angular frames such as square, rectangular and wayfarer shapes tend to flatter a rounder face, while round, oval and cat-eye shapes soften a more angular one. It is a starting point rather than a rule, and plenty of the best-looking pairs ignore it entirely. You can filter the catalogue by shape to compare them side by side.

Open Filter on any collection page. You can narrow by brand, shape, colour, who the frame is cut for, price band, and reading strength where it applies, and combine as many of those as you like. Every combination has its own web address, so a filtered view can be bookmarked or sent to someone else.

That the frame is cut in proportions that suit most faces rather than being sized towards a typically larger or smaller fit. Men's and women's here describe the cut and the styling the manufacturer designed for, not a rule about who should wear it.

Light bouncing off a flat surface such as a road, water or a car bonnet becomes horizontally aligned, which is what you experience as glare. A polarised lens filters that alignment out. It makes the biggest difference driving, fishing or near water, and it is a genuine optical effect built into the lens rather than a coating that wears off.

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding in eyewear. Tint darkness and ultraviolet filtering are unrelated. A dark lens with no UV filter is worse than no sunglasses at all, because the darkness makes your pupil open wider and lets more ultraviolet in. What matters is the protection the lens is rated for, not how dark it looks.

Polarisation happens inside the lens and cuts glare. A mirror coating sits on the outside and reduces overall brightness while hiding the eyes. They are independent: a lens can be one, both or neither.

Sometimes, and it is normal. Many phone screens, car dashboards, aircraft windows and ATM displays are themselves polarised, so viewed through a polarised lens at certain angles they can dim, darken completely or show a faint rainbow pattern. Tilting your head or the screen brings it back.

Lenses that darken in response to ultraviolet light and clear again indoors, so one pair covers both. Because they react to UV rather than to brightness, they typically darken less behind a car windscreen, since most windscreens already filter UV.

Here the honest answer is more useful than a sales one. The trials to date have not shown that filtering blue light measurably reduces eye strain, and we are not going to claim otherwise. What is well supported is that strain from long screen sessions comes largely from reduced blinking and sustained close focus, which is why the twenty-twenty-twenty habit helps: every twenty minutes, look at something twenty feet away for twenty seconds. People do report that they prefer wearing them, and that is a fair reason to buy a pair.

That depends on the frame, and it is a job for a qualified optometrist rather than something to attempt at home. We sell frames and lenses as the manufacturer supplies them; an optometrist can tell you whether a particular frame will take the lenses you want.

A reading strength is a single magnification applied to both lenses, written as a plus figure such as +1.50. A prescription is written per eye and can also correct astigmatism and distance vision, which a single figure cannot. Readers help with close work; they do not correct an underlying refractive error.

If you already wear readers, order the strength you have. If you do not, the usual starting point is the lowest strength that lets you read comfortably at your normal distance, since a strength higher than you need causes its own strain. If you are unsure, an optometrist can tell you in a few minutes.

Those are dioptres, the standard unit for lens power, rising in quarter and half steps. The higher the figure, the stronger the magnification and the closer the comfortable reading distance becomes.

The reading glasses listed here are ready-made in fixed strengths, the same figure in both lenses. If your prescription differs between eyes, includes astigmatism, or you need distance or varifocal lenses, contact us before ordering rather than guessing at a strength.

Orders go out with The Courier Guy, tracked to your door nationwide. Gauteng usually arrives 1 to 3 working days after dispatch and other main centres 2 to 5; outlying areas can take a little longer. Delivery is free on orders of R500 or more, otherwise R80 in Gauteng and R150 elsewhere.

It is calculated at checkout from the delivery address you enter, so you see the exact figure before you pay rather than after.

Yes. The Courier Guy issues tracking once the parcel is collected, and you can see the status of any order under Orders in your account.

No. The checkout is set up for delivery within South Africa only, and prices are in rand. If you are ordering from elsewhere, contact us first rather than attempting the checkout.

Ask us before you order. Collection is not offered as an option at checkout, so it is something to arrange with us directly rather than assume.

If the fit is wrong, send the frames back within 30 days of delivery.

Contact us first, on WhatsApp or by email, weekdays between 08:00 and 17:00. Tell us the order number and what is wrong with the fit, and we will tell you where to send them.

Within the same 30 days, and subject to the frame you want still being in stock. Tell us which colourway or size you would prefer when you get in touch, and we will check availability before anything is sent back.

Get in touch straight away and send photographs of the damage and the packaging. Doing that on the day it arrives makes it far easier to resolve, particularly where the damage happened in transit.

Card, and Payfast. Payfast is South Africa's established payment gateway and supports card, instant EFT and its own wallet. All prices are in rand.

Card details are entered on the payment provider's own secure page rather than stored by this shop, and the whole site runs over an encrypted connection. We never see or hold your full card number.

No, you can check out as a guest. An account is worth having if you expect to order again: it keeps your delivery address, and it is where you can see the status and history of your orders.

Saving frames you are still deciding between. Eyewear is rarely settled in one sitting, and a shortlist you can come back to beats trying to remember a model code.

Sold-out frames stay listed rather than disappearing, so you can still see the model and its colourways. Get in touch with the model code and we will tell you whether it is due back. You can also tick In stock only in the filter drawer to hide anything unavailable while you browse.