Sunglasses have forever had the power to make almost any man look cool. While sunglasses had not become a staple of James Bond style until the second half of the Pierce Brosnan era, they are now an indispensable part of the character’s look as well as an easy opportunity for product placement. Bond has worn many different styles of sunglasses over the years, both following trends and returning to the classics.
This article will examine all the glasses James Bond wears, from his sunglasses to the eyeglasses he wears as disguises.
In this article I frequently reference Bond Lifestyle, which has been my go-to source for information on James Bond’s sunglasses for almost two decades. The James Bond Dossier also published a comprehensive article about James Bond’s sunglasses that I also used for reference.
From Russia with Love
Sean Connery’s James Bond wears his first pair of sunglasses in From Russia with Love with his grey glen check suit and trilby. These rounded cat-eye sunglasses have thin medium-brown plastic frames with grey lenses. The cat-eye style was popular in the 1950s and 1960s with both men and women, and in the previous film Dr. No Jack Lord’s Felix Leiter wears a much bolder cat-eye style with chunky frames and an elongated and exaggerated shape. Cat-eye glasses have since been thought of as a more feminine look. The thinner frames give these sunglasses an elegant look that pairs well with a suit.
The maker of these sunglasses is unknown. Some people have alleged that these are the Oliver Goldsmith ‘Consul’, but the Consul’s frames are thicker and have a Wayfarer shape rather than a cat-eye.
Thunderball
At the beach in Thunderball, Bond wears the Cool-Ray Polaroid N135 styled by Cari Michelle. They are black rectangular Wayfarer-style sunglasses with grey lens and wide temples. This style is often called Wayfarer after the Ray-Ban Wayfarer that was launched in the 1950s, even though the Wayfarer name is trademarked. Wayfarer-style sunglasses have thick plastic frames with a rounded trapezoid shape that curves up towards the temples, and the style is flattering on virtually everyone. These sunglasses have a timeless look that defined Bond’s sunglasses look for over four decades until Daniel Craig popularised new looks for Bond.
The plastic frame of Connery’s sunglasses does not look particularly refined, which makes these sunglasses better for dressing down than dressing up, and thus they are perfect for the beach. These sunglasses have grey lens and two pins at the hinges.
These have been recreated by Curry & Paxton as the ‘Sean’ model as well as by Barton Perreira as the ‘007 Thunderball’. Both examples look more refined than the originals that Connery wore.
Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
George Lazenby’s first pair of eyewear as James Bond are yellow-tinted night-driving glasses, which he wears with his dinner suit and trilby while driving his Aston Martin DBS at the start of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. DBS-owner Tom Mulhall has identified these as Nighthawk Driving Glasses. They are designed to reduce glare by filtering blue light. While reports of their effectiveness are mixed, they’re just the kind of innovative technology that James Bond loved to try in the 1960s.
Blofeld tells Bond, ‘It takes more than a few props to turn 007 into a herald,’ when he breaks the spectacles that Bond wears to disguise himself as Sir Hilary Bray. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the first occasion that Bond uses glasses as a disguise. These oval-framed tortoiseshell glasses—which match those that George Baker’s Sir Hilary himself wears—give Bond an old-fashioned and scholarly look fitting for a man who researches heraldry. The frames are somewhat delicate with fairly narrow temples and two pins at the hinges.
A View to a Kill
After a two-decade absence from the series, Bond once again wears sunglasses in A View to a Kill. For skiing in Siberia at the start of the film, Roger Moore’s Bond wears skiing sunglasses rather than his usual ski goggles. The sunglasses are the Bogner Eschenbach 7003 90, provided by the same brand who made his ski clothing. They are in a large, squared style with thin white plastic frames that have black metal temples and a black bridge. The lenses are a rose gradient colour.
These sunglasses were sold at Prop Store on 26 September 2018.
As part of a semi-disguise as James St John Smythe, Bond wears a pair of light-brown translucent round-framed sunglasses with a keyhole bridge, a brass brow bar, thin temples and brown lenses. These sunglasses mainly serve as a gadget, as the adjustable polarising lenses help Bond see through the glare of a window. There are tabs with the letters OHM at the bottom of the lenses that rotate to adjust the polarisation. These sunglasses pair elegantly with his ivory dinner jacket, and the colour matches the jacket’s horn buttons. Sunglasses are not a typical accessory to pair with a dinner jacket, since dinner jackets are traditionally only worn in the evening. However, they can be an appropriate accessory when the sun sets late in the early summer. With a black or midnight blue dinner suit, sunglasses with black frames would pair better than this light brown model.
The Living Daylights
In The Living Daylights, Timothy Dalton’s Bond wears a pair of black binocular glasses while surveying General Pushkin from his car in Tangier. These are binoculars that have arms like glasses that he can wear on his face like glasses.
As Bond escapes officials in Tangier, he steals a pair of sunglasses from a street vendor to disguise himself, though it is a poor disguise since Felix Leiter’s friends have no trouble identifying him. These square aviator-style sunglasses have a thin dark brown tortoiseshell frame instead of the usual metal frame, with a thin bridge and brow bar, thin brass arms and curved grey lenses. These large sunglasses are a good representation of the fashions of the 1980s.
GoldenEye
GoldenEye starts Bond’s relationship with the legendary Italian glasses brand. Pierce Brosnan wears what is allegedly the Persol 861 (identified at AJB007) in dark brown tortoiseshell with brown lenses. They have a somewhat square Wayfarer shape with narrow temples. The square shape was popular in the mid-1990s, but the fashions would change by the next time Bond wears glasses. The brown of these sunglasses pairs well with Bond’s tan suit. They have a refined look that pairs well with a suit but can also dress down well too.
These sunglasses are not the often-stated Persol 2611-S, which has wider temples.
The World Is Not Enough
The World Is Not Enough makes eyewear an integral part of Bond’s look. In the late 1990s, the large styles of glasses that had dominated for decades were replaced by smaller and more delicate styles. Pierce Brosnan luckily has the kind of face that can wear any glasses shape well. The eyeglasses that Bond wears as a disguise at the beginning of the film have a small oval shape with very thin brown tortoiseshell frames and temples. The design looks minimal on the face and tries not to distract from it. They have a formal and professional look that goes well with the business suit. The James Bond Dossier identifies these as the Calvin Klein cK 718F. They also serve as a detonator to a small bomb Bond has brought with him.
For skiing, Bond wears the Calvin Klein 2007. These have a metal frame with grey lenses. The glasses have a curved oval shape that wraps around the front of the face for full coverage from the sun, despite the somewhat small lenses. Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
The most iconic glasses in The World Is Not Enough are the small black rectangular-shaped, metal-framed x-ray glasses. The light blue lenses suggest the glasses’ x-ray properties. The brief scene at the casino when Bond puts on the sunglasses and we can see though the ladies’ dresses, along with seeing Bond’s pleasure at wearing these glasses, makes these glasses memorable. While blue is not a typical colour for sunglass lenses, the lenses nevertheless look almost dark enough to appear as sunglasses, which could make Bond look conspicuous indoors at night where people do not usually wear sunglasses.
An article on Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang titled ‘World Exclusive: Bond’s Blue Glasses Uncovered’ that identified the glasses being from a brand called Blue and model number MOD No.9048 ANT BLUE 50X19. They were purchased at a High Street optician’s shop and the lenses were replaced with the light blue ones seen on screen. Bond Lifestyle identifies Scrivens Opticians as the source.
However, Roger Moore’s book Bond on Bond has a photo of glasses with blue lenses that also look like the screen-used ones, and they are from Calvin Klein. The book identifies these as the detonator glasses, but they look like the x-ray glasses. These may or may not be screen-used.
Die Another Day
James Bond finds himself posing as diamond trader Van Bierk at the start of Die Another Day. When he meets Van Bierk face to face, he steals his sunglasses to complete his disguise. These sunglasses look like miniature aviators, updated for the trends of the time. They have a thin metal frame with a curved brow bar, but the lenses are small, green and oval.
Readers of this blog have identified the sunglasses as the Oliver People’s Aero. According to the DVD documentary, these sunglasses were Pierce Brosnan’s own.
Later in Cuba, Bond wears the Persol 2672. These sunglasses, made in a dark brown tortoiseshell with brown lenses, have a rectangular wrap-around shape, which was trendy in the 2000s. The temples are narrow. Bond Lifestyle relays that Persol specifically designed these sunglasses with James Bond in mind. They started with a trendy style for 2002 but refined it to look more appropriate for James Bond.
Casino Royale
Daniel Craig ushered in James Bond’s golden age of sunglasses in Casino Royale. While, Pierce Brosnan established sunglasses as an important James Bond item, Daniel Craig made them an indispensable James Bond item by wearing 11 pairs over five films. Sunglasses have been popular amongst Bond fans because they’re some of Bond’s most accessible fashion accessories, particularly since most people have a practical use for them.
Persol continued their relationship with the Bond series in Casino Royale. In the Bahamas with his grey linen suit and navy Sunspel Riviera polo, Bond wears the Persol 2244 in colour 834/33. The frames are a gunmetal colour while the lenses are brown. The glasses have rectangular lenses with a wraparound shape and a double bridge. The frame is metal while the temples are acetate. Of the two pairs of sunglasses that Bond wears in Casino Royale, these are the sportier of the two, but Bond shows how they pair just as well with a suit as they do with a polo.
Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
Later in Montenegro, Bond wears the Persol 2720 with his charcoal blue checked suit. These sunglasses have a brown tortoiseshell frame with green lenses in colour 24/31. Like the 2244, these sunglasses also have a rectangular wraparound shape, but in tortoiseshell they look a little more sophisticated and pair well with the suit and tie. However, the sporty wraparound shape and wide temples dresses them down a bit, allowing Bond to dress them down if he wanted to.
Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
Quantum of Solace
For Quantum of Solace, James Bond’s new clothier Tom Ford provided the sunglasses, and Bond wears a single pair throughout the film with a number of different outfits. These Tom Ford FT108 sunglasses are an aviator style with small lenses that closely resembles the Oliver Peoples ‘Airman’. The shape of the lenses differs from the Airman’s by placing the lower fullness toward the middle of the lenses rather than to the sides. They have a semi-matte rhodium frame with black temple tips and smoke blue lenses. The bridge sits at the top of the glasses at the browline, which has the downside of making the nose look larger. Bond shows the versatility of aviator sunglasses by wearing this pair throughout the film with two polos, a formal shirt and cardigan, and a brown suit.
Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
Skyfall
Skyfall marked a return to more classic sunglass styles with the Tom Ford Marko FT0144 aviator sunglasses. Compared to the FT108 from the previous film, these are a more traditional aviator style with larger lenses and a double bridge, making them much easier for most men to wear. They have a rhodium frame with black temple tips and blue lenses.
Bond first wears these sunglasses as part of his chauffeur’s disguise and later wears them again with his dinner jacket after he’s captured by Silva. They go better with the former look than with the latter. It doesn’t make sense that Bond would have brought these sunglasses to the casino with him the night before, but nevertheless he looks cool pairing them with his dinner suit in the daytime sans bowtie.
Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
Spectre
As part of Bond’s funeral disguise in Spectre he wears the Tom Ford ‘Snowdon’ FT0237 sunglasses, with frame colour Havana 52N and grey lenses in size 50. These soft square Wayfarer-style sunglasses are amongst the easiest to wear and most versatile of the entire Bond series. The frames are chunky, but the shape is flattering to almost any face. While black sunglasses would have better complemented the black suit and black overcoat, the dark brown ‘Havana’ colour looks better on Daniel Craig’s light, low-contrast complexion. However, the colour looks so dark that it often reads as black, particularly on screen, so it isn’t an issue that the sunglasses aren’t black. And it is more important that the colour of the sunglasses complements the wearer’s face than how it pairs with the outfit.
A screen-worn pair of these sunglasses were sold at Christie’s on 23 Feb 2016 for GBP 25,000. The auction listing confirms the details of the sunglasses.
Later in Spectre in the scenes in Morocco, Bond wears the Tom Ford ‘Henry Vintage Wayfarer’ FT0248 model in colour code 52A. These sunglasses are not actually in a Wayfarer style but instead are in a browline style, also called a ‘Clubmaster’ style after the Ray-Ban Clubmaster. The style was invented in the late 1940s and was popular in the 1950s, but Ray-Ban didn’t introduce their Clubmaster model until the 1980s when the browline style saw a revival. The browline fell out of favour again in the 1990s until around the time Daniel Craig wore them in Spectre. Spectre may have had a role in their resurgence.
The ‘Henry’ has soft square lenses and narrow temples. The top of the frame and temples are in Havana-coloured acetate, while the bridge and bottom of the frame is in a thin dark metal. Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
For the snowy scenes in Sölden, Austria, Bond wears the unusual Vuarnet ‘Glacier’ 027 PX-5000 sunglasses. These sunglasses have a large oval black plastic and metal frame with removable leather side shields and nose protector. The temples have metal wire ends that wrap around the ears to ensure they don’t fall off during physical activity. Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
No Time to Die
No Time to Die has a record four pairs of sunglasses in a single Bond film. Each pair of sunglasses has their own time and place in the film, so the number of sunglasses does not feel excessive throughout the course of the film and in the context of the wardrobe and story. Compared to where Daniel Craig started out with modern sunglass styles in Casino Royale, for No Time to Die he wears vintage and vintage-inspired styles.
Bond starts off with the Barton Perreira ‘Norton’, a thin, round chestnut-brown tortoiseshell frame with a keyhole bridge and narrow temples. The lenses are green. The highlights in the tortoiseshell frame bring out the colour of Craig’s hair as well as his suit. Compared to all of the sunglasses throughout the series, these sunglasses are amongst the most traditional. The shape is reminiscent of the classic sunglasses that Cary Grant wears in North By Northwest, but the frame of the Norton is more delicate and the proportions are smaller, making these easier to wear. Bond wears them at the start of the film in Matera, first for a brief swimming scene and then with his Connolly linen jacket and with his Massimo Alba needlecord suit. By wearing these sunglasses with three different levels of formality, Bond shows the versatility of this classic style.
For Bond’s retirement in Jamaica, he wears the Vuarnet Legend 06 in a Brown frame with ‘Brownlynx’ lenses. These glasses have a Wayfarer shape with a bit of an upwards tilt for a sporty and dynamic look. Daniel Craig was a fan of these sunglasses for a few years before he filmed No Time to Die. The stylish actor Alain Delon also wore the Legend 06 in his 1969 film La Piscine, so it’s another classic sunglass style for this film.
When Bond is out sailing, he wears the sunglasses with a Croakies Original sunglasses strap in navy to ensure he doesn’t lose them.
Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
When Bond puts on his suits in London, he wears a second pair of sunglasses from Barton Perreira: the ‘Joe’ in black acetate with grey lenses. These are also a Wayfarer style frame, but compared to the Vuarnet Legend 06, these have a squarer shape with a more delicate frame for a smarter and more elegant look. The black sunglasses pair well with the black-and-grey and black-and-blue checked suits that Bond wears them with, but the colour is harsh on Craig’s complexion.
Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
The fourth pair of sunglasses in No Time to Die is another pair from Vuarnet: the Vuarnet ‘Edge 1613’. These sunglasses have a round shape with a dark metal wire aviator frame and a double bridge. Bond wears these sunglasses when flying in the rear seat of a folding glider, the perfect place to wear aviator sunglasses.
Read more about these sunglasses at Bond Lifestyle.
Dr. No (Sesame Street)
In 1994, Sesame Street aired a parody of James Bond called ‘Dr. No’ about James Bond going to the doctor because he can’t see. It turns out his problem is because of his dark sunglasses. At the time this was made, James Bond of the films was hardly associated with sunglasses, an association that would not come until Pierce Brosnan was established as Bond. Nevertheless, both James Bond and sunglasses are associated with spies and an image of cool, so Sesame Street put the two together to create the coolest Muppet they could. The trenchcoat, however, is very out of place for James Bond, but he’s wearing it so he looks like a spy.
Muppet James Bond’s sunglasses are either black Ray-Ban Wayfarers or knock-offs with dark grey lenses, so dark that Bond cannot see through them. They resemble Sean Connery’s sunglasses from Thunderball, which were still the image of cool three decades later.
Behind-the-Scenes Sunglasses
The James Bond actors have worn many other pairs of sunglasses on the sets of their films that did not appear in the films. The black Persol 828 sunglasses that Sean Connery wore in the Alps when filming Goldfinger are one of the most iconic pairs of Bond sunglasses that don’t appear in the film, and Barton Perreira have made a pair loosely inspired by them as part of their 007 Collection.
This article has left out goggles, which are a different kind of eyewear and have a more practical aspect than a stylistic one.
I can’t be the only one who tries to spot the camera crew in the reflection on the lenses.
Can’t say I’m a fan of any of the Craig era sunglasses
Not the Marko? Any of the vintage inspired ones? Those are classic as can be.
I more or less agree, I really like the Nortons from the beginning of NTTD but most of the others are either too big or too small for his face. The Quantum of Solace ones look particularly ridiculous to my eye, despite the otherwise excellent wardrobe.
Funny enough, I was actually discussing this with Matt right before he published the article and we agreed the Quantum ones look comically undersized on him. “It makes him look more like a Muppet than Muppet James Bond,” as he succinctly put it.
I can’t tell you how much this made me laugh, he certainly does seem to have the classic stuck-on Telly nose in the photo used in this article.
Nor me! I also agree with Timothy, they never seem the right size for his face. The Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace designs are particularly dire (probably just the then-current style that has since dated), and to my eye don’t pair well with the suits, and I remember my brother breaking out in derisive laughter at that smash-cut to his ridiculous chauffeur disguise in Skyfall (on a par with the Muppet for inconspicuousness). At least Dalton’s hypno-specs served a plot function, but as others have pointed out, too often Craig wears them just to look cool.
Hello Matt,
In a photoshoot in Austria for Spectre, Daniel wore his Persol 714 folding sunglasses in a nod to Steve McQueen. The connection was surely too obvious to include them in the film although folding sunglasses are ideal for a gadget-loving spy. I seem to remember that your friend David Mason has them as everyday optical glasses.
Behind the scenes too, Timothy Dalton wears what looks like Ray-Ban Wayfarers on Licence to Kill’s Florida location. He has sunglasses in his navy shirt posket in the same film.
Sean Connery is spotted with aviator shades on the American set of Diamonds are Forever.
For Moore, apart from AVTAK, the only shades I can think of on a Bond set are at the 007 stage opening ceremony to hide his bout of shingles where he wears them with what looks like the Chesterfield and gloves from LALD and a tie from Gold. I have not found pictures of him with sunglasses on a Bond set even in BTS in places like Thailand or Sardinia where the light must be blinding. If you like you can count his visit to a Bond set when he meets Pierce Brosnan on the set of GoldenEye.
Best regards
I think it was better before when sunglasses was an accessory from time to time in the films while Craig overuse them in my opinion.
Regardless if it’s in a film or in real life I appreciate to see someone’s eyes as much as possible because they say so much. An exception can of course be made when the sun is really strong.
“The trenchcoat, however, is very out of place for James Bond, but he’s wearing it so he looks like a spy.”
This is going on a tangent, and I know we discussed this a couple days ago, but I actually wouldn’t mind Bond wearing a classic trenchcoat since it’s a quintessential British outerwear piece. After all, Roger Moore wore one in “Happy Anniversary 007” and I didn’t think it looked out of place on him. Mercifully, Burberry is making them full length again, though they are nowhere as well made as they used to be. (Ladies, gents, and enby nobles, grab them second-hand while you still can like I did!) Even ASOS makes a full length trenchcoat now; that gives me hope that we haven’t fully lost this functional coat length yet.
Depends on how Bond wears and accessorizes the coat as well. I could see Bond in a deep navy trench coat, about knee length, if not just an inch over. But never flip the collar up, and rarely, if seldomly ever, tie up the belt, and absolutely never, ever put on a Trilby or Fedora.
You’re right, it would make him look a bit like a stereotypical detective rather than a spy, especially if it was a classic tan trench. I think an umbrella is all a modern Bond would carry to defend his head against the rain. Kind of like Daniel Craig’s Mikael Blomkvist.
One of my favorite Bond behind the scenes pairs of sunglasses is the Persol “Capri” shades Daniel Craig wore on the set of Skyfall.
Those suit him quite well!
I’d check the blue twine glasses, in Roger Moore’s bond on bond page 85 there’s a pic and you can clearly see Ck on the temple, the text says they are explosive but they have blue lenses and a black frame and closely resemble the X-ray glasses .
Thank you for the heads-up! The book says those glasses are the ones with the detonator, but they sure look like the x-ray glasses. I’ll update the article with this information.
My favourite use of sunglasses in the series is in Thunderball where Bond puts them on to talk shop with Domino after telling her that her brother has been murdered.
Very cool post Matt!
Nice article Matt. Maybe you could make a similar arrangement with Bond’s cufflinks?
Excellent post Matt thanks for the thorough and comprehensive review.
I’m a sunglasses nut with over thirty pairs but living in Florida they are a necessity as much as a stylistic accessory.
My efforts to emulate Bond have met with mixed results. I got the Tom Ford Skyfall pair but they didn’t suit me and I was disappointed that the hoped-for blue lenses were in reality much more grey than blue so I gave them away.
I got the Vuarnet Edge as worn in NTTD and I quite like them but was disappointed that they only make the briefest of brief cameos in the film.
Thunderball is perhaps my favourite film in the entire canon and certainly the best from a style perspective. I have Oliver Peoples Jaye sunglasses in Bordeaux Bark frames. I would have preferred that the frames be a bit more red as in dimmer light they appear almost black but they are a close approximation in shape to those worn by Bond in the aforementioned conversation with Domino and as such are among the favourite in my own collection.
I just looked up the Jaye, and it is a fantastic alternative for the Thunderball sunglasses. They look beautiful!
Cheers Matt. I saw some time ago that on the Bond Lifestyle website they had identified the Thunderball frames and suggested the current equivalent / redo / replica or whatever and I was tempted to get them at first but just decided my OP Jayes look close enough anyway so I didn’t need another close facsimile. I might add that the quality of the Jayes is excellent with robust frames and hinges and grey glass lenses.
Speaking in my capacity as an optometrist, the Living Daylights binocular specs are available mainly to those unfortunate enough to have “low vision” and counterintuitively are often used to help those with severe retinal problems to read their books, etc. They sacrifice field of view and usability for the tiring effect of raising the vision through extreme magnification. Patients find the use of them difficult to learn but useful when you’ve got a final demand letter you simply must read!