Thanks for tuning in
today we're going to be looking at the
Bolle Chronoshield
sunglasses.
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Bolle originally introduced the Chronoshield
sunglasses back in 1986
taking inspiration from their Chrono ski
goggles
and the iconic shapes of the 80s. Now
since then, oversized sunglasses have
really
come back in popularity and to take
advantage of that Bolle has reintroduced
the Chronoshields
taking the iconic shape and added more
modern elements and lens technology.
Looking at the box Bolle's done a very
simple job here you can see the
sunglasses are really large just based
on the dimensions of the
packaging as well with black graphics.
You have this nice reflective shape here,
this is really the iconic part of the
Chronoshield sunglasses the shield
shape with the oversized
lens. Let's go ahead and take it out of
the box and while i do that we'll go
over the specs.
The retail price on this is $170
with the mirrored lens
or $240 with the Phantom lens. The Phantom
lens is a light adaptive lens
that is a multi-category lens that can
work in both low-light and high
and bright conditions as well.
Inside the box you get the
brow bar this is a little foam piece
that attaches with these little tabs
this adds a little bit comfort when
you're wearing the sunglasses and will
catch a sweat before it goes into your
eyes.
You have a removable lens with this so
you can swap them out easily just by
pulling down
vented lens. These are the clear green
Phantom
and you can see here and in this lighting
condition has a slight light
green tint to it and right now
it's pretty
transparent as well. When you go in the
sun this will darken up.
You have thermo grip padding on the
temple
and you can see it's nice and flexible.
You also get the thermo grip
nose pads with three adjustment points
so you can really dial in the fit pretty
easily.
You can see here the brow bar if I
simply attach it here
with the little tabs it'll just click
into place
and give it a little more aggressive
look as well. Inside the box you get
that
the brow bar, you get the sunglasses
you get a nice cloth bag you get a
little manual explaining the filtering
categories in multiple languages
and the nice hard case here. Inside the
hard case you can keep the brow bar
a second pair of lenses and the
sunglasses themselves so pretty large
case.
Now let's take a look at the weight of
the sunglasses obviously these are quite
large so I expect them to be a little
bit heavier.
The sunglasses without the brow bar come
in at 38 grams
it's a little bit heavier than some of
the other sunglasses we've reviewed but
still
pretty light as 38 grams not very
much.
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Now let's take a look at the fit and
finish of the Bolle Chronoshields.
Now at this point oversized sunglasses
have become really common in the
marketplace.
It seems like every brand has their own
variation what stands out about the Bolle
Chronoshield is that it's actually a
reproduction of the original.
They're really bringing back an old
style retro sunglasses and modernized it.
Now these are full frame design so you
can see it goes all the way around
and it really echoes some of the
original
shape from the 1986 model
and it looks like a actual ski goggle
just because of the size of this.
It's kind of ridiculous just how large
these are if you were to compare this to
a standard sunglass.
With this it's really double or triple
the size, now with the
updated design they've really brought
back they've kept the iconic shape but
they brought more modern elements to it.
So you can see
the frame itself is a matte plastic
with sharp angles here so you have sharp
angles on the side
combined with a venting here it gives it
an aggressive look.
On top with the brow bar it also extends
the frame up a bit
which gives it a little bit more
aggressive look as well. I typically ride
without it
because it's a little bit bulky but if
you're someone that sweats a lot or you
want to wear it in summer it's really
nice feature to have.
The temples are also very simple not
very complicated at all, you have
essentially a two-piece design
with a hinge. It seems like there's a few
dedicated spots here so you can see it
lands in here but otherwise it stays
pretty stable.
Once you're in that position you can
see you have a little bit of play. To get
nice comfort
at the ends of these tips you have this
rubber piece
so it's really soft against your head
and can also adjust for different sizes.
This is described as a large frame and
as someone wears a medium helmet I found
this to be pretty similar to
other large size sunglasses and pretty
comfortable.
Now when you pick a sunglasses you want
to pick the right lens for you
it's not about just picking something
that looks cool. When it comes to lenses they
come in different categories of
filtering
everything from zero to four where zero
is essentially a clear lens that you can
see
right through all the way to four which
really lets very minimal
amount of light transmission through the
lens. That's really for high
brightness situations and
traditionally sunglasses come in
category two or three
for cycling those are general purpose
and they work pretty well.
If you ever had a category four lens you know
they're way too dark unless you're in
really bright conditions. They're
just not very usable
so you'd have to swap them in and out.
Now what's cool about the
Phantom technology it's a multi-category
lens so
with this light green Phantom you get a
category 1-3
lens and that means it ranges from nine
percent
light transmission to 66 so it's really
impressive. That means you can ride in
low light conditions like early morning
or
after sunset and then ride in the bright
weather as well so if you have a lot of
micro climates or you're on a long ride
you don't really need multiple lenses.
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Now let's do a little comparison against
other sunglasses on the market first.
Let's start with a pair of Oakleys this
is a standard prescription lens
and you can see a much smaller frame
more traditional.
Putting them side by side you can just
see how ridiculous these
oversized sunglasses have really become.
You can see where the nose piece ends on
both sunglasses
with the Chronoshield it extends
another inch or two so
a lot wider field of view and overall
just much bigger in every single
dimension. You get a lot larger field
of view
a bigger lens and more protection
against the elements.
It really makes you wonder how you go
back to a traditional lens because the
oversize is
it's really nice to ride with one
sunglasses. I've
usually ridden with is the Oakley
Radars these were actually fairly large
they had an XL version. This is the
standard version again putting the nose
pieces side by side
you can see how much this extends out
wider and further down as well.
So much bigger field of view, again you
won't really see the edge of the lenses
and you got a lot more coverage. Now
comparing it against
other oversized frames here, I have
the Smith Flywheel.
This is a sunglass we recently reviewed,
pretty similar size actually
you can see the lenses extend almost the
same place equally far down.
With the Smith Flywheel you get a little
bit more
uniqueness as the top of the lens
extends up and it's a semi-frameless
design with the bottoms being open.
Personally I found riding with the
bottom edge here, it's actually visible
when you look down
and I've just gotten used to not having
it so I do like having a semi-frameless
design versus a full frame
but something you can easily get used to.
Again with the oversized sunglass
frame
design it's kind of become
ubiquitous and
almost a little bit ridiculous
especially when you put it side by side
with the standard sunglasses.
We can also compare it with the Bolle
Lightshifter
this is another new model from Bolle. You
can see they're both
large but not nearly as large i like the
Lightshifter compared to the Chronoshield
for something
you can actually wear around town or
when you're off the bike as i feel a
little bit
a self-conscious wearing such a big one.
You can see putting these side by
side
equally large semi-frameless with the
bottoms open
but it's really hard to match the Chronoshield
you can see
compared to the other sunglasses. This
really just stands out
equipped with the Phantom lenses the
Chronoshields offer an impressive range
of
light transmission that lets you ride in
low light conditions as well as full sun
without having to swap lenses. With
the large frame
size you have a very impressive field of
view that lets you see everything around
you
in a very immersive way our only
complaint is that with the full frame
design
you do see the bottom of the frame only
when you look straight down
which is one reason why we prefer a
semi-frameless design.
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Now let's give the Chronoshield the
final rating. We're going to go over four
different categories the design,
optics, comfort and finally the
value.
In terms of design the Chronoshields are
polarizing
they're a large retro modern design that
not everyone will like.
However on the bike I think they're a
great fit they sit right up against your
helmet and have a very
sleek look to them. Optics i'd give it an
A the phantom lenses are very
impressive
with the wide field of view and the
light transmission range you can really
wear them in
a variety of conditions. Comfort is another
A
the temples are really easy to adjust
and the adjustable nose piece lets you
really get the right fit
for any type of face. Value-wise I would
give these a B+,
again they're quite expensive yet
you get a lot of value and with the
polarizing design it's something that
really stand out on the road.
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