Gentle Monster, Huawei team up over smart eyewear

South Korean eyewear label Gentle Monster has partnered with Chinese tech giant Huawei to produced connected eyewear.

The networked eyeglass frames allow wearers to answer calls without picking up their phone, and feature antennae, noise-reduction microphones and speakers tucked behind the ear.

“Smart eyewear is different than the smart phone or the smart watch,” said Gentle Monster co founder and CEO Hankook Kim. “The smart eyewear is on our face … It is normal but actually it is slightly different. We believe the small difference changes everything.”

The label, known for its trendy and futuristic individualised store designs, has 18 locations selling both futuristic and more conservative eyewear.

“If you want to see how it looks on normal people, you can look at me,” said Kim.

“I really appreciate Huawei because they realise that eyewear comes first and smart comes later,” he added.