That was until a young man from the Bristol area who had no ties to the optical industry decided to challenge this unjust sytem.

He contacted some spectacle suppliers and tried to persuade them to supply him direct, and after many refusals managed to persuade a supplier to sell to him direct, thus was born GlassesDirect.com.

The concept was then looked at by others including Budgetspex.

We decided that now that the concept was being taken seriously by the High Street, that we would offer a similar facility but with quality in mind, you see we have many years of experience at making glasses to the highest standards.

We also have many years of standing in the spectacle supply chain and even have our own brands.

This should give you some confidence in our ability to supply better products than our competition, at better prices than our competition.

We don,t go overboard with advertising but are happier building a satisfied customer base by word of mouth.

We offer a no quibble guarantee on all products and services and are happy to talk with and advise on any spectacle related issue.

We can sell prescription spectacles cheaper than our competitors because we are part of a well established spectacle manufacturing business and have access to great discounts from leading lens manufacturers and optical importers, we simply pass back these savings to our customers.It's as simple as that.

We are one of the foremost internet suppliers of cheaper spectacles to the general public in the UK .Although the term cheap glasses smacks of poor quality frames glazed poorly with poor quality lenses, it could not be further from the truth.

See our testimonials updated at regular intervals

We sell prescription full rimmed glasses, semi rimless glasses, rimless glasses, titanium glasses, designer glasses and even cheaper odds and ends glasses.

We don't supply thick as a brick glasses made from the cheapest nastiest stock lenses, we only supply glasses made with optimised lens stock and specially surfaced lenses to reduce thicknesses.

Our spectacle frames are selected for quality and value and are constantly reveiwed, we listen to our customers and act only in their best interest.

Here at Budgetspex our technical staff have many years of spectacle making experience. Our quality is unquestionable.In fact our products are sold in Opticians shops all over the Uk every day of the week.

Budgetspex for Transitions, Polarised glasses, Antireflection coated glasses, Polycarbonate, Lens tints, Thin lenses, High index lenses, 1.74 index, 1.67 index, 1.6 index, Trivex, Glasses frames, Discount glasses, Low cost glasses, Polarized glasses, Glasses accessories

Our low priced are glasses made in the Heart of the West Midlands.

To buy prescription glasses from us you must first register your prescription with us

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The only information we gather from you is your email address, a unique password and your prescription details, these details are held securely on our server and will not be lent sold or passed on to any third parties for any reason, once these details are gathered you can buy as many pairs of glasses as you wish without re entering your prescription, this should lead to less input errors an a quicker service.

Rimless Glasses

Rimless eyeglass frames have been around for years, but have recently been rediscovered, and are now featured by many of the top designer eyewear brands. Rimless glasses have very little frame material, and usually no frame around the rim of the lens, so the glasses seem to barely visible on the face. Rimless glasses of all the frame designs, reveal more of your natural looks. Rimless glasses are delicate, lightweight and gracefull, regular spectacle frames cannot match this.

More and more stars of the screen and celebrities wear rimless eyeglasses, showing off their looks and taste.

Rimless eyeglass frames are available in many different shapes, sizes, colors, and styles. You can use our frame search function to search for the specific features you want: rimless plastic, rimless metal, rimless titanium and frame brand. Rimless eyeglasses are available with standard hinges, sprung hinges and hingeless. Rimless glasses frames are a little more expensive than full rimmed glasses because it is more time consuming and complicated to mount prescription lenses into rimless eyeglasses.

If you don't want to make a fashion statement with your spectacles, and want them to be as inconspicuous as possible.You must try rimless frames there are so many styles and shapes available you are sure to find the right choice.

We are one of the foremost internet suppliers of affordable spectacles to the general public in the United Kingdom. Although the term cheap spectacles smacks of poor quality frames glazed poorly with poor quality lenses, it could not be further from the truth.

See our testimonials

Our UK laboratory is who's trading name is kept secret to preserve supplies, has a reputation for the highest quality and excellent service.The chances are that you know someone who has had their glasses made in our laboratory and they haven't purchased cheaply made spectacles but have purchased the very same frames as supplied on our website and paid much more for them.Whether you order from our range of designer label glasses or from any of our other selections you will not be buying cheaply made poor spectacles but great spectacles at a very low price, without losing out on quality or service.

Our designer frames are guaranteed 100% authentic and are sourced from UK suppliers, we don't sell poor copies just cheap spectacles.

Don't waste your hard earned cash on expensive high street stores, cut out the middle man, buy direct at huge discount.

If you think our frames are not worth every penny just return them for a full refund.

Designer Eyeglasses

We sell genuine designer eyeglasses by Versace - Calvin Klein - Police - Cerruti - Janet Reger -Versus - Christian Dior - Ralph Lauren - Yves Saint Laurent - Dolce and Gabbana - DKNY and Donna Karan.

Our designer eyeglasses are 100% genuine and sourced for the best uk prices.

We only supply the designer eyeglasses models listed on our uk website, as new models are sourced they will be added. The price you see is the price you will pay with standard stock Cr39 plastic lenses fitted to your own prescription.

The high street price for these frames is much  more expensive.

Why should you pay high street prices ? when you can buy the same product from our UK stock at a fraction of the price.

Many people want designer eyeglasses but have in the past found them to be well outside their budget .

With Budgetspex anyone can afford a best pair of designer eyeglasses for those prestigious occasions.

It is doubtful that you could buy cheaper or buy a better finished pair of eyeglasses.

Calvin Klein - Police - Cerruti - Versus - Christian Dior - Ralph Lauren - Yves Saint Laurent Dolce and Gabbana - Donna Karan - Giorgio Armani - Vogart - Janet Reger - DKNY

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The History Of Spectacles

The first recorded use of a corrective lens was by the emperor Nero, who was known to watch the gladiatorial games using an emerald.Sunglasses were first used in China in the 12th century or possibly earlier.

The "lenses" of these glasses were flat panes of smoky quartz, which offered no corrective powers but did protect the eyes from glare. Glasses first began to appear in common use in northern Italy late in the 13th century; most likely in the late 1280s.

It is not clear when the technology was invented.

It has been said that Marco Polo reported seeing many pairs of glasses in China as early as 1275.

In 1676, Franciscus Redi, a professor of medicine at the University of Pisa, wrote that he possessed a 1289 manuscript whose author complains that he would be unable to read or write were it not for the recent invention of glasses, and a record of a sermon given in 1305, in which the speaker, a Dominican monk named Fra Giordano da Rivalto, remarked that glasses had been invented less than twenty years previously, and that he had met the inventor.

Based on this evidence, Redi credited another Dominican monk, Fra Alessandro da Spina of Pisa, with the re-invention of glasses after their original inventor kept them a secret, a claim contained in da Spina's obituary record.In 1738, a Florentine historian named Domenico Manni reported that a tombstone in Florence credited one Salvino d'Armato (died 1317) with the invention of glasses.

Other stories, possibly legendary, credit Roger Bacon with the invention.

Bacon's published writings describe the magnifying glass (which he did not invent), but make no mention of glasses.

His treatise De iride ("On the Rainbow"), which was written while he was a student of Robert Grosseteste, no later than 1235, mentions using optics to "read the smallest letters at incredible distances".

These early spectacles had convex lenses that could correct the presbyopia (farsightedness) that commonly develops as a symptom of aging.

Nicholas of Cusa is believed to have discovered the benefits of concave lens in the treatment of myopia (nearsightedness).

However, it was not until 1604 that Johannes Kepler published in his treatise on optics and astronomy, the first correct explanation as to why convex and concave lenses could correct presbyopia and myopia.

The American scientist Benjamin Franklin, who suffered from both myopia and presbyopia, invented bifocals in 1784 to avoid having to regularly switch between two pairs of glasses.

The first lenses for correcting astigmatism were constructed by the British astronomer George Airy in 1827.

Over time, the construction of spectacle frames also evolved.

Early eyepieces were designed to be either held in place by hand or by exerting pressure on the nose (pince-nez).

Girolamo Savonarola suggested that eyepieces could be held in place by a ribbon passed over the wearer's head, this in turn secured by the weight of a hat.

The modern style of glasses, held by temples passing over the ears, was developed in 1727 by the British optician Edward Scarlett.

These designs were not immediately successful, however, and various styles with attached handles such as scissors glasses and lorgnettes remained fashionable throughout the 18th and into the early 19th century.

Despite the increasing popularity of contact lenses and laser corrective eye surgery, glasses remain very common and their technology has not stood still.

For instance, it is now possible to purchase frames made of special memory metal alloys that return to their correct shape after being bent.

Other frames have spring-loaded hinges.

Either of these designs offers dramatically better ability to withstand the stresses of daily wear and the occasional accident.

Modern frames are also often made from strong, light-weight materials such as titanium alloys, which were not available in earlier times.