New frame range arrives @ Ocean Optometry

Kirk & Kirk - Vivarium

This may not come as a surprise to you, but we really do love our eyewear ranges here at Ocean!  We travel to the best international exhibits to meet with the finest creators of eyewear in the world.  At that point we then individually select the frames to bring back to Halifax for you to enjoy!

That may sound like quite the process, however, it makes a world of difference for our office!  It means that we don't just have generically styled and humdrum collections for you to choose from.

The arrival of a completely new collection is always an exciting event, and recently we had the great pleasure of opening up quite a special box from Kirk & Kirk.  Launched in September 2014 at Silmo, in Paris, these were a must have for us as soon as we saw them.

Kirk Brothers

Heritage

Jason and Karen Kirk have quite the pedigree as eyewear designers, so when they announced their
new venture, we knew it was going to be special.

Sidney and Percy Kirk first opened their workshop creating eyewear in 1919 in London, UK.  Renowned for their innovation and style, the Kirk Brothers soon became a benchmark to be compared against.  Three generations later, Jason and Karen Kirk are doing it all again!

One thing that we become quite nerdilly obsessed about, attention to detail - Kirk & Kirk has this in bucket loads!

Their inaugural ophthalmic collection is called Vivarium.  Vivarium is inspired by the Victorian obsession with science and nature, each frame is named after a famous scientist of that era - models include such great names as Curie, Fleming, Darwin and Carson.

Hand Crafted

Beautifully handmade in France, the frames balance a strong look, with contemporary styles and fashion leading shapes.  Kirk & Kirk have sourced an exceptional Italian acrylic material to create the frames with, allowing for a unique colour palette.  The metallic finish to the colours gives a warmth and depth which just isn't available in any other material.

The collection features blue, bordeaux, anthracite, brown, green and silver colours.  Describing them does not really do them justice, though, you need to try them on and see how the colour subtly alters as you move your head.  In some ways it almost seems like the frame is alive!

The idea of life is brought out in another unique feature that the collection has - decorative pins.  Each frame features two pins made in either 925 sterling silver or 9 carat gold, crafted with incredible detail by artisan jewellers in England.  Studying the workmanship that the pins features really highlights the attention to detail that Kirk & Kirk have used when creating this collection.

Intricate and whimsical, delicate and yet bold all at the same time you can be sure that you will be in touch with your inner Victorian Dandy when you choose Kirk & Kirk Vivarium!

Six Weekiversary

Victoria Day – our six weekiversary!

What an amazing 43 days!

 

Ocean Optometry officially opened its doors for business six weeks ago on Victoria Day. In that time we have now performed many more eye examinations than we dared to anticipate and we’ve helped people choose some beautiful eyeglasses. We’ve worked with our lens suppliers to bring crystal clear vision in the optically and cosmetically best way possible. We’ve even fitted people with contact lenses for their very first time.

We are amazed by the response that we’ve had and also quite humbled. We’ve had complete strangers tweet to us that our store looks great as they’ve walked past. We’ve heard comments that it is “glasses heaven” and that we have “too many nice glasses”.

Since our earliest plans were being laid, John and Euan wanted to create a truly unique optometry office. From the interior design, to the eyewear ranges, through the advanced IT infrastructure to our engagement via social media. We wanted to be dynamic, vibrant, on trend and urban. Most of all we wanted to have fun while we did it. This is the reason that four friends have chosen to work together and even though, like all good friends, we have had disagreements and ‘heated debates’ we’ve stayed true to our core principle and loved every moment of it.

This Victoria Day weekend we closed on the Monday, to get a chance to spend time with our loved ones and recharge our batteries. We've come back refreshed and hungry for success.

This is where we now need your help. Our office is very much in a David and Goliath situation. We are a small local office, competing in an industry worth billions of dollars. We are creating our own space against competitors with years of trading history and incredibly deep pockets for advertising budgets. We are also competing against offices who you may imagine are local and yet are owned by national corporations with hundreds of offices.

You can help, though, by spreading the word.

We would love if you tell people about Ocean Optometry, perhaps someone needs an eye examination or you feel they could do with new eyewear. Perhaps someone has a red eye and needs immediate attention. Whatever the reason, we would be incredibly grateful if you could tell people about Ocean Optometry and your experience with us.

We would love for you to follow us on Twitter, like us on facebook or review us on Yelp!

If you’ve just picked up your new glasses, tweet us a picture of them, or post a picture to our facebook wall.

Whatever you can do, however you can spread the word, we would be honoured and grateful.

We too hope that you had a great Victoria Day weekend and, most of all, are having fun,

Euan & John

Dr Euan McGinty & Dr John Wilson

co-owners and eye-geeks to the core.

Euan, John and Mike had a hectic visit to New York.  The trip started very early on a cold Friday morning, but we were all full of excitement and energy, this was going to be a trip like no other!

The sole purpose of this trip was to meet with the best eyewear providers in the world in one single location so that we could put together the most wonderful collection of spectacles in a single location.  Read all about our trip in the various news posts.