read on reinvents itself: from product to concept, the Swiss brand becomes an optical platform

Some brands make products. Others redefine categories. As read on marks its sixth anniversary, the Zurich-based label takes its boldest step yet: the company that first put reading glasses inside an iPhone case is now repositioning itself as a fully-fledged optical platform.

This isn't a marketing rebrand. It reflects a consistent trajectory built around three axes — radical industrial design, extreme portability, and in-store personalisation — that co-founders Sandra Kaufmann and Monika Fink have developed with an engineer's rigour and a designer's eye.

Six years in, a strategic pivot

read on launched in Zurich in 2020 around a deceptively simple idea: reading glasses don't have to be ugly, inconvenient, or forgettable. Its first product — ultra-thin TR90 frames housed inside a smartphone case — addressed a gap the market had overlooked: readers who want their glasses on them at all times, without thinking about it.

Six years on, the brand operates in around 20 countries, has posted sustained double-digit growth since launch, and is now actively exploring partnerships and strategic transactions to accelerate international expansion.

read on light: turning a necessity into desire

The 2024 launch of read on light marked a visible shift. Where the ready-made reading glasses segment had long been defined by utility — pharmacy display stands, entry-level optician picks — read on turned it into a design object: bold shapes, vivid colour ranges, deliberate lightness.

The 2024 Good Design® Award in the Personal category validated the approach. The 2026 German Design Award for Excellent Product Design reinforced it. Together, they signal the same thing: read on is no longer a functional alternative to prescription eyewear — it's an aesthetic proposition in its own right, one that belongs in a style practice as much as a medicine cabinet.

read on light customized: the optician as personalisation partner

The brand's latest innovation reshapes the distribution chain in a meaningful way. The read on light customized — covered in detail at launch — enables opticians to adapt a frame to each customer's individual needs in-store, using a counter display box containing 28 pre-cut lenses across seven dioptre strengths (+1.0 to +2.5).

The commercial logic is sound: by positioning the eyecare professional as an active participant in the personalisation process rather than a passive point of sale, read on cements its status as an optical platform in the operational sense of the term — a coherent system, not an isolated product.

Sandra Kaufmann and Monika Fink: serial innovators in eyewear

The read on story doesn't emerge in isolation. Its two co-founders are on their third eyewear venture. Before read on, there was Strada del Sole — patented flat metal frames in the luxury segment — and Sol Sol Ito, a Swiss independent label founded in 2012, known for its screwless hinge and interchangeable temple system.

Three brands, three technical approaches, three distinct market positions. One constant: starting from the design gesture itself rather than optimising the existing. It is precisely this method — radical in its premises, rigorous in its execution — that gives the founders the credibility to claim optical platform status in a way few players in the segment can match.

read on in 2026: an optical platform looking for strategic partners

With a footprint across around 20 countries and strong demand, read on is entering its acceleration phase. The brand is actively seeking partners — distributors, investors, or eyecare industry players — who share the conviction that the global ready-made reading glasses market remains vastly underserved at the design and lifestyle end.

The stakes are real. The ready-readers segment worldwide remains dominated by utility and low-price positioning. That a Swiss brand, built on strict product innovation principles and a strong visual identity, has carved out consistent, growing space within it over six years is a signal the optical industry should take seriously.