Bold claim: Love at first sight isn’t just a fairytale—it can happen with a lens. Two eyecare professionals have firsthand experience with Tokai Optical’s lens designs, including the HR and HR-W single-vision ranges, and they explain to Insight why they’re eager to recommend them to patients—and even to friends and family.
Simone Liewes can’t participate in an interview right now. She’s unwell, confined to home, and unable to speak. Yet her written responses pulse with passion for her field, her role as a dispenser and fitter at Eyes on Dromana in Victoria, and, above all, for patients. She also expresses deep respect for the people behind Tokai’s engineering and products, including the new HR and HR-W single-vision lenses.
As Liewes declares in her responses—she LOVES GLASSES. Her affection stretches back to childhood, when she wore them proudly at school despite being teased by classmates.
“I have been collecting glasses since before I started working in optics, and I rotate through my collection almost daily,” she shares.
That lifelong enthusiasm found a professional outlet when she encountered optics as a career path.
“My ex-husband worked with a man whose father was best mates with the optical mechanic at a small independent practice,” Liewes recalls. “They’d heard on the grapevine that they were looking for an apprentice, ideally a mature one. My boys were in school and I wanted to re-enter the workforce, so I popped in to introduce myself. The owner looked at me and said ‘I love your glasses, you’ve got the job.’”
If the rest is history, Liewes discovered early on that Tokai would play a central role in her future, from lenses to coatings. Tokai was relatively new to the Australian market at the time, but her first experience with Tokai lenses was transformative—almost love at first sight.
“Even though I was new to optics and mostly wore single-vision lenses, I wondered how much difference there could be. I couldn’t believe the clarity difference.”
Today Tokai is her brand of choice.
“Since wearing the Lutina lens with a mix of their stunning tints, I won’t wear anything else,” she says. “My current favorites are Lutina with Double Rose tint and Lutina with Pink Fine Colour.”
That preference extends to family and friends as well.
Liewes is still getting up to speed on the HR and HR-W lenses, which are newer to Australian practices. Yet she vividly remembers a patient who rests at the heart of her story—the one who moved her to tears.
“She had advanced Parkinson’s and two brain implants. One implant sat too close to her optic nerve, causing significant prismatic vision. Her glasses were heavy and difficult to wear, and they’d slip off her face. She wanted a fun, lightweight frame that concealed her strong prescription, but the key was the perfect lens.”
“I chose Tokai,” Liewes says. “Her speech was impaired by her condition, but I’ll never forget her reaction: she put on the glasses, broke into a huge smile, and walked out the door toward the horizon without a word. Her husband and I could only smile.”
If that isn’t evidence of a well-made lens’s impact, what is?
Liewes has also seen the quality up close during a recent trip to Tokai’s factory in Japan. The experience was eye-opening and heartwarming, she notes, as she witnessed the engineers’ passion and commitment first-hand. Tokai’s motto—prioritizing customers and originality—hangs in every room, reinforcing her pride in promoting their products.
Despite not always understanding every technical detail behind the coatings and lenses, Liewes trusts the results she sees for her friends, family, and patients.
Tokai positions HR and HR-W as more than premium single-vision lenses; they represent a distinct category of single-vision optics. Justin Chiang, Tokai’s Australia general manager, explains that the concept began by examining how the eye behaves in real life—when we move, look around, and track objects—focusing on the fovea centralis, the tiny region of the macula responsible for our sharpest vision.
“The fovea is small but mighty,” Chiang notes. “It isn’t aligned with the optical axis, so when the eye turns, light must travel to a slightly offset point. Traditional single-vision lenses assume the optical center aligns with the eye’s rotation center, which only holds true when looking straight ahead. Sideways glances—checking a mirror, glancing at a blind spot, following a child, or scanning multiple screens—cause clarity to falter.”
Tokai’s design redirects light to reach the foveal region more effectively. The HR lens expands crisp peripheral clarity and supports the eye’s natural pursuit of smooth tracking, rather than relying solely on head movements. HR-W advances this with aspheric optimization on both front and back surfaces. This dual-surface setup gives HR-W tighter control over peripheral aberrations, maintaining clarity as the eyes move horizontally or vertically.
HR-W also adapts to different lifestyles with multiple designs. One version emphasizes broad, stable clarity across the widest field, ideal for active users and drivers. Another design boosts near-vision comfort for close work and digital use. A third option produces a slimmer profile, offering a cosmetic edge especially noticeable with higher prescriptions, a boon for fashion-forward or rimless frames that many dispensing opticians appreciate.
Among practitioners who praise Tokai, Kevin Li stands out. He’s an optical dispenser and supervisor at the University of Canberra’s student-led optometry clinic. Li has noticed improved peripheral clarity and fewer aberrations in patients with higher prescriptions using HR or HR-W lenses.
Li’s path to optics was indirect and colorful—he began repairing electronics before shifting into optics through a friend’s practice. Now, as he mentors students and dispenses lenses, he sees high-script patients benefiting most from Tokai HR designs. He notes that as prescriptions rise, lateral aberrations typically increase, but patients with HR lenses report clear vision across the entire lens surface.
In Li’s clinic, patient outcomes take precedence over profits. He emphasizes that Tokai shares this ethos: the goal is to deliver the best possible lenses at a price that remains accessible. This philosophy lets him offer premium, high-end experiences—think Mercedes-Benz quality—in affordable terms.
So, what’s your take on the HR and HR-W approaches? Do you believe this kind of technology can transform everyday vision, or do you think the benefits are overstated? If you have experiences with Tokai lenses or other premium designs, share your thoughts and sparking debates in the comments.
