Can I get a new earpiece for my Calvin Klein prescription eyeglasses?

June 28, 2021 2:19 PM

My eyeglasses are plastic with metal earpieces, and the earpiece has snapped off, right next to the hinge. Two years old, so no longer under warranty. The plastic part and the hinge itself look fine; only the metal earpiece itself is broken. Unfortunately, the optician I bought it from has been bought out by a big corporation, and they say that they can no longer order parts. They can't fix it for me, and they can't even order the frames again to put my lenses into.

They helpfully looked it up for me and told me my frames are Calvin Klein #18706; I have them in the Crystal Teal Laminate. Is there anyplace that will let me order just the earpieces for this frame, myself? It's such an easy repair that I don't need an expert to do it for me.

Or does it make sense to get an eyeglass repair shop that's apparently located not too far from me to weld it? They say they can't order the earpiece, but that they can probably weld it. It seems impossible that the earpiece could be strong enough after a repair, when it broke so easily the first time, but I have no experience with this.

Or should I try to find another optician that still carries these frames, to order them and move the lenses for me? (It's an expensive prescription, and they got it just right, unlike previous pairs.) I live in a big city, so local availability might be good, but it seems like most of the hits for it in a google search are in the UK, when I'm in the US.

Due to health problems, it's not easy for me to drive to the glasses repair shop that I found online, though it's pretty close, so I want to think this through as much as possible first.

posted by metonym to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

I don't have specific answers for you, but hopefully this helps anyway. First, if you need to search for or talk about the part of the glasses frame that connects the lens frame to your ear, those are typically called "temples".

Second, if the eyeglass repair shop says they can weld the temple back together, they should be roughly as strong as it was before as welding means that the broken pieces are recombined back into one solid metal piece, not just gluing the broken pieces together with some different media (which is what soldering or brazing is).
posted by Aleyn at 2:32 PM on June 28, 2021

Given the frame you linked is $105, and your local repair shop may charge that much to repair it, I'd say order the same frame and have the lenses relocated, or better yet, have another set of lenses made.

Then you can have the welded one as backup.
posted by kschang at 2:38 PM on June 28, 2021

I wore a pair of glasses that only had one arm for a long time. Possibly a year or two. It stayed on my face no problem. Most people didn't even seem to notice.
posted by aniola at 2:50 PM on June 28, 2021

Sorry for any eyeglass shop owners on Metafilter, but eyeglass salespeople just want to sell you a new pair, and they will come up with any and every excuse in the book not to help you fix an existing pair.

For purposes of looking things up online, "temples" are another term for what eyeglass tradespeople call the bit that hooks the lenses to your ears. I've found replacement temples for old eyeglasses on eBay, when I can't get help from eyeglass shops.

I can't guarantee you'd find a set, but if I were in your shoes, I'd start there, using the model number of your glasses as a jumping point.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:59 PM on June 28, 2021

Order a new pair of frames and put the earpiece of the new frames on the old glasses. I don’t think a repair shop will charge you much less.

And don’t delay unduly; that discount could mean the frames are discontinued.
posted by jamjam at 3:00 PM on June 28, 2021

"And don’t delay unduly; that discount could mean the frames are discontinued."

Order two pairs now if you can afford it, in case they're on the way out.
posted by mccxxiii at 4:47 PM on June 28, 2021

Buy the new frames, pop the lenses out of your current frames (they should push out from the back if you heat the frame a little with a hairdryer, or just pop out with a little pressure) and if you're feeling like that went ok, put them into the new frames yourself. Or take the lenses and new frame to your optician and ask them - "my lenses fell out!".
posted by london explorer girl at 3:15 AM on June 29, 2021