For most people, sunglasses are made for utility and style, not necessarily luxury. However, like any accessory, the world’s largest jewelers, department stores, and specialty boutiques have jumped on the luxury bandwagon to create outrageously expensive versions of everyday sunglasses.
Whether sculpted from gold and encrusted in jewels or simply bearing the name of the world’s top jewelers, these sunglasses represent the most expensive that you can readily buy online without special orders or calling foreign boutiques to confirm pricing.
Read on for the 8 most expensive sunglasses available.
The Boss
photo source: Maybach
The luxury German sunglasses manufacturer Maybach sells jewel-encrusted handmade glasses for luxury prices. The Boss is one of their sunglasses built for a muscular profile, made from 24-karat gold and platinum with a frame handcrafted from authentic horn. The Boss is a perfect blend of cultures, from the Italian acetate colors to the Japanese shape to the German manufacturing.
The Boss is part of Maybach’s Sun Collection. Their prices are only available on request, but these glasses can be bought from third-party retailers like Good See Co. for $3,750.
Did you know?
Maybach has been around for over 100 years as an automobile brand formed by father and son, Wilhelm and Karl Maybach. Later, their desire for exclusive, luxury materials led naturally to other pursuits, such as jewelry and other accessories.
Dita Eyewear
photo source: Farfetch
Dita has been selling luxury eyewear since 1995. They specialize in mixing titanium and wood construction to create distinctive designs. These square-framed Dita glasses have tinted lenses and a design that emphasizes discretion and luxury in equal parts.
From the Farfetch storefront, these interchangeable temple sunglasses can be purchased for $5,788.
Did you know?
Unlike many jewelers and boutiques on this list, Dita specializes in optical manufacturing. The cult surrounding Dita’s signature combination of beauty and utility crosses disciplines. You will see Dita glasses equally on the well-coiffed heads of celebrities and covering the steely eyes of performance-driven athletes.
Louis Cartier Precious Sunglasses
photo source: Cartier
The Louis Cartier Precious Sunglasses were sculpted from 18-karat white gold in this half-circle pantos design that harkens back to Louis Cartier’s classic designs. Cartier founded the brand way back in the 1840s and slowly but surely took the world of luxury accouterments by storm. These glasses are the picture of solid gold excellence in his sunglasses designs.
That’s why they cost $7,845. If you see these on other, non-Cartier retailers, you better do your homework. You can always recognize genuine Cartier glasses by the specific motif of the handle screws, the signature on the temple, and the Double Cs of Cartier’s insignia. Cartier is one of the most often counterfeited brands in the world so watch for that.
Did you know?
Cartier has over 200 store locations in 125 countries. The Historical Maisons or “Temples,” being the massive primary storefronts, are in New York, London, and of course, Paris. Despite existing for nearly 150 years, Cartier is actually on the rise, according to business publications. Its most recent revenue measurement was in the neighborhood of $6.2 billion.
Duchesse Sunglasses
photo source:
The Duchesse Sunglasses are part of the Gold & Wood brand’s tradition of using luxury materials, including rare stones, to create sunglasses that are nearly pieces of jewelry. The glasses have been crafted from 16.29 grams of pink gold as well as 30 white diamonds (brilliant-cut), which equal about 0.07 carats in total. They offer options for black diamonds, cognac diamonds, sapphires, and rubellites as well.
Gold & Wood does not list their prices. However, these glasses sell through third-party retailers for around $8,300. After customizing them through their name-brand store, the price will likely go up.
Did you know?
Gold & Wood, as the name suggests, specializes in using precious wood species to create custom jewelry, sunglasses, and more. They embed silk into their wood veneers, as well as work with solid luxury horn, whose patterning is unique for each piece they make. They’ve been at it for 25 years.
Premiere De Cartier Precious Sunglasses
photo source: Cartier
These Premiere De Cartier Precious Sunglasses by Cartier are sculpted from 18-karat yellow gold in the signature Cartier motif. The lenses are rimless, pilot-shape, yellow-tinted, and are manufactured with class 3 solar protection to keep your eyes safe. The metal parts are platinum, finished with ruthenium.
Cartier is a well-known name in luxury jewelry and accessories and these $9,495 sunglasses continue their tradition of decadence. You can buy Cartier glasses from other retailers but buying from the boutique itself is the only way to guarantee authenticity, provided you can stomach the price.
Did you know?
Louis-François Cartier founded his eponymous jewelry brand in 1874 in Paris, passing it on to his sons in 1899. It was a family-owned jewelry workshop until 1964 when it became part of the Richemont Group.
They retain the brand’s standards for royal excellence in jewelry and watches, including many royal patrons. “Royal” commissioners of Cartier products include The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Elizabeth, King Edward VII, and Elizabeth Taylor. Cartier also brokered the sale of the famous Hope Diamond.
Chrome Hearts Brown Diamond Cross Rejected F*ck You Dark Sunglasses
photo source: Tradesy
These sunglasses have quite the name. We’re going to call the Chrome Hearts Brown Diamond Cross Rejected F*ck You Dark Sunglasses just “Chrome Hearts Sunglasses” from now on. The Chrome Hearts Sunglasses have custom decals made from natural blue diamonds, round cut, including 2 quarter-carat stones in the blue crosses. The glasses were made in Japan from brown Carl Zeiss lenses.
Due to the diamonds, these glasses retail for $25,000. However, you can buy them on sale on Tradesy for $13,512.80. Whether you consider that a deal or not depends on how much you want top-of-the-line Chrome Hearts glasses.
Did you know?
Chrome Hearts is all about environmental sustainability. They advertise using natural formulas in their synthetics rather than non-biodegradable plastics. Renewable plastic as it’s sometimes called is a step that Chrome Hearts hopes to take to turn its manufacturing into a circular process. This means that you use as few resources and energy as possible and then recycle and reuse as much of it as you can.
Fred
photo source: Farfetch
Fred is a custom jewelry boutique located mostly in Europe and East Asia but based in Italy. Their sunglasses are only available on request (you have to request a price quote). The online dealer, Farfetch, lists a sunglasses and bracelet set from Fred at $13,883, which is presumably the same or less than buying them directly from the jeweler.
These glasses are as luxurious as you’d expect from a boutique that specializes in black diamonds, custom engravings, and emerald-cut jewelry.
Did you know?
Fred Samuel was born in 1908 in Argentina. His family was already deep into the business of precious stones when he got there. His mark on the industry eventually became so pronounced that the light cream-pink color of the brand’s signature stones is now known as “Fred-colored.” This “contemporary creative jeweler,” as he put it, started the concept and the studio that would ultimately lead to the international custom jewelry boutique.
Naples
photo source:
The most expensive sunglasses are the Naples. These glasses made by Luxuriator cost $25,000. Franco started designing custom accessories at the age of 16, leading him to start crafting eyewear in 1991. The brand’s first products were titanium frames enhanced by electric voltage tech, a trick Franco learned while visiting an eyewear engineer in Copenhagen.
The Luxuriator Collection started in 2004 and continues to deliver the artist’s unique vision in high-class eyewear, including the Naples glasses.
Did you know?
The Luxuriator Collection isn’t just a flashy name – they back up the price with hand-engraved, enameled, or hand-set glasses, made to order. They use 18-karat yellow, rose, white, or gunmetal gold for the frames of the glasses to lay in the pave and micro-pave diamonds. The temples of the glasses are made from buffalo horn and luxury leather.
The Takeaway
Luxury sunglasses may not be everyone’s first choice to drop over $20,000. However, designer jewelry brands and Paris boutiques love to glam up glasses with the rarest jewels and most luxurious constructions. Some like Cartier have been doing it for hundreds of years.
Whether you’re a movie star or you just want to feel like one, these expensive sunglasses can give you your ticket to the appearance of fame and fortune, even though they take a little of it from you in the process.