****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I had earlier bought a pair of the Gabriel + Simone Reading Glasses in the Monsieur style and had used them for nine months. I accidentally stepped on them and broke the hinge for one arm to where I needed another pair. I like the view I got with them but they seem to be no longer available in the tortoise color and black is too hideous to me. I looked at the Flex Grande style and liked the brown color. I thought from the picture that it used the same lens as the Monsieur which I liked because these were intended to be used for viewing my computer monitor which is 22 inch and I want the entire screen to fit into the frame of my glasses and those had done just that. As far as I can tell, what I thought turned out to be true on examination of the item on arrival as for the shared lenses. The "flex" aspect seems to be that at rest, the ends of the arms are rather close together and are spread to go on your head giving a slight spring tension sort of effect. I can say that tension is no more noticeable than with the Monsieur style though it is achieved in a different way, meaning the Monsieur had heavier arms, while the Flex uses more the amount of spread, with thinner arms. The glasses seem much lighter plus they slip probably less down your nose in use by way of in addition to the less mass pulled by gravity, but the rubberized ends of the arms that has ribs that sort of grip your head.EDIT TO UPDATE: I just got my second pair of these glasses today. The first pair lasted a year and a half, which is actually good for me because I am pretty hard on glasses and wear them practically all the time, including when I am asleep because I fall asleep watching movies in bed on my Kindle. That would ruin ordinary glasses the fist time I did that with them. Anyway, I probably dropped them too many times onto hard concrete floors, and the frame broke at one point where it is the thinnest. I could put a piece of tape on the edge to hold them together and wear them like that, but it ends up not being very practical. I bought a pair of glasses at my local box store but didn't like them, they were heavy and uncomfortable and made me feel like I was going blind. I got fed up and ordered another pair Flex glasses, and what a difference! Now I am happy again with glasses I can live with! They really are amazing in a lot of ways, and worth every cent. You have to try them to appreciate how much clearer your vision is with them.SECOND EDIT TO UPDATE: one year later, I am ordering my third pair. The first broke where it is the narrowest part of the frame as it goes around the lens. The second broke in a more ordinary way, which was on the main body of the frame, where the hinge part is, right where the screw goes though one of the hinge flanges. I had a problem earlier with this same pair, with this same arm (the proper term is actually temples). I still had the first pair, and took one arm off that, and put it on the new pair. That was an almost satisfactory fix that I figured would work as long as I was careful with them. I forgot to do that, so now the part that held it is broken. I figure it is something to do with matching parts in assembly, if two parts do not match perfectly, it creates a strain where there, and eventually it will give, since this is the weakest point with glasses.I should mention that at the moment that the break occurred, I was flinging them onto my mouse-pad by the arm (I was holding onto the very end of the temple and flipping my wrist, while walking past my desk), which I was carrying it by, after it had been dangling like that as I walked across the house. I don't know how many times I may have done things like that without even noticing how abusive I was being to them.I do have a bit of advice, which is that though the slip cases that come with them are nice and will prevent scratches, it is not robust enough to prevent them being bent in situations like squeezing into tight car seats with them in your pants pocket. After popping the lens out that way, I bought a rigid case for situations like that.It is annoying to have a lens come out, but just allow yourself to get calm and collected, be patience, take your time, and with a bit of care, they will end up fine. Whether you push it in from the front or from the back, doesn't matter, just whatever works with your particular technique.
