Shorter Days Are Coming: Is Your Lens Coating Ready for Autumn?

24 September 2026

Shorter Days Are Coming: Is Your Lens Coating Ready for Autumn?

The mornings are getting darker. The evenings are drawing in. And before long, many of us will be doing far more of our driving and travelling in lower light.

For glasses wearers, autumn and winter can make something particularly noticeable:

reflections on your lenses.

Headlights, streetlights, wet roads and bright shop signs can all become much more obvious through a pair of glasses after dark.

And that's when the quality of your lens coating can really start to matter.

Why Do Reflections Become More Noticeable at Night?

During daylight, there's plenty of ambient light around us.

At night, things are very different.

Bright individual light sources sit against a much darker background. Headlights are perhaps the most obvious example.

Any reflections from the surfaces of your spectacle lenses can therefore become more noticeable.

A good anti-reflection coating is designed to reduce those surface reflections, allowing more useful light to pass through the lenses.

That's one of the reasons we recommend our Ultima+ coating.

Ultima+ Isn't Just About Anti-Glare

Reducing reflections is particularly useful as the days get shorter, but that's only one part of what Ultima+ does.

It combines several different lens treatments into one coating:

• Anti-reflection – helps reduce distracting reflections from the lens surfaces.
• Anti-scratch – improves resistance to the everyday wear spectacle lenses experience.
• Anti-smudge – helps reduce fingerprints and oily marks.
• Hydrophobic – helps repel water from the lens surface.
• Easy-clean – makes everyday marks easier to remove.
• UV protection – provides protection from ultraviolet light.
• Blue-light filtering – incorporates additional blue-violet light filtration.

That combination becomes particularly useful at this time of year.

Rain + Glasses = A Familiar Autumn Problem

Anyone who wears glasses knows the routine.

You walk outside.

It rains.

Your lenses are covered in droplets.

You wipe them.

Five minutes later, they're dirty again.

The hydrophobic properties of Ultima+ help water behave differently on the lens surface, encouraging it to bead rather than spread.

That doesn't mean your glasses magically stay dry in a downpour.

But it does make the lenses easier to live with and easier to clean.

And, as we explained in our previous article, making lenses easier to clean has another advantage.

You're potentially wiping them less frequently.

Lower Sun Can Be Just as Annoying

Autumn doesn't only mean darkness.

The sun also sits lower in the sky, which can create uncomfortable glare at certain times of the day.

That's why good vision at this time of year isn't simply about having the correct prescription.

The quality and condition of the surfaces you're looking through matter too.

Take an older pair of glasses and hold them towards a light.

Fine scratches, coating deterioration, fingerprints and reflections that weren't particularly obvious during a bright summer afternoon can become far more noticeable in difficult lighting conditions.

Have a Look at Your Glasses Before Winter

This is actually a good time of year to give your glasses a proper inspection.

Not just through them.

Look at them.

Hold them towards a light.

Are the lenses heavily scratched?

Do they constantly look smeared even after cleaning?

Are the coatings beginning to deteriorate?

And perhaps most importantly, when did you last have your prescription checked?

If everything is fine, brilliant.

But if the lenses have seen better days while the frames are still perfectly good, you don't necessarily need another pair of glasses.

You can simply replace the lenses.

Your Favourite Frames, Ready for the Darker Months

That's what reglazing is all about.

Keep the frames that fit you, suit you and that you already enjoy wearing.

We replace the lenses with your current prescription and the lens options that suit you.

And if you're choosing new lenses as we head into autumn and winter, Ultima+ is an upgrade worth considering.

Not because of one headline feature.

But because anti-reflection, anti-scratch, anti-smudge, hydrophobic and easy-clean properties are things you'll benefit from every single day.

Clearer lenses. Fewer reflections. Easier cleaning.

Sometimes it's the things you don't notice that make a good pair of glasses so much nicer to wear.

Find out more about reglazing your glasses and Ultima+ at www.reglaze-glasses-direct.com

< back