After first being spotted on Mark Cavendish during last year’s Tour de France, Oakley has this week properly unveiled the latest addition to its cycling eyewear range, the new Jawbreaker.

The Jawbreakers have been two years in the making, and put through 100 design iterations and 9,600 hours of lab and field testing, according to Oakley. They get their name from the hinge mechanism that pivots to separate the lower half of the frame to allow easy lens changes. This hinge works in combination with a hinged nosepiece, using the Switchlock technology from the Radarlock, that secures the lens in place.

As you can obviously tell from the photos, the lens is far larger than the current pros favourite, the RadarLock. Oakley claims a 44% increase upward field of view. It’s apparent that Oakley has looked to address the issue of some eyewear obscuring vision when riding in an aggressive position, such as in the drops, when the top of the frame can block the field of view. The top of the frame curves upwards to “to give the wearer an unprecedented field of view.”

There are also new lenses utilising Prizm Technology, with a new Prizm Road and Prizm Trail lens for on and off-road action. The new road-specific lens has been developed to help “spot subtle changes in the texture of the road surface.” The lenses are  ventilated to reduce fogging.

 

“The idea of Jawbreaker was inspired by professional cyclist, Mark Cavendish,” says Oakley. “Whether it’s measuring his own wattage output, pinpointing his drag coefficiency in a state-of-the-art wind tunnel, or adjusting his seat position by a fraction of a millimeter, he leaves nothing to chance in his preparation. This obsession led to a unique collaboration with Oakley. His challenge was to design an ‘armour for speed’.”

The new glasses also look to take inspiration from the iconic Eyeshade glasses, first worn by Greg LeMond in 1985, and which kicked off the fashion for cycling-specific eyewear, at a time when most weren’t wearing shades in races, other than the occasional aviators.

The Jawbreakers will be available in six frame colours and a choice of lenses, including Prizm Road, Trail, Grey Polarized, Sapphire Iridium and Red Iridium Polarized. Details of pricing and availability TBC.

www.oakley.com