ESSILOR ENHANCES DEFINITY WITH CRIZAL ALIZÉ WITH CLEAR GUARD
Premium coating helps reduce glare and keeps lenses cleaner, longer

DALLAS – (May 26, 2006) – Essilor of America announces that DEFINITY™ progressive lenses are now available with Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard™. DEFINITY with Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard pairs a premium lens design with the premium anti-reflective (AR) coating. Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard not only reduces glare, but also allows lenses to stay cleaner longer by repelling dust, fingerprints, oil, grease, water and smudges. This new combination of premium Essilor products is ideal for the active lifestyles of today’s presbyopes by providing the clearest, sharpest vision possible.

By offering DEFINITY with a premium anti-reflective coating, such as Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard, wearers benefit from better overall optical performance and improved vision. Having AR lenses is also medically important as it reduces glare, provides more accurate vision and reduces eye fatigue.

DEFINITY is the perfect lens for the active lifestyles of today’s presbyopes. With superior intermediate vision and the least amount of unwanted astigmatism of any progressive lens, DEFINITY makes computer use, driving or any other everyday activity more comfortable. GROUND VIEW ADVANTAGE provides clearer vision when looking down, making going up and down stairs, playing golf or tennis or navigating uneven surfaces easier.

“We recommend DEFINITY with Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard because of its proven benefits in terms of reduced glare, clearer and more accurate vision,” said Francois Glon, general manager, DEFINITY. “In the summer, this becomes especially important for DEFINITY wearers who are typically more active and spend more time outdoors. DEFINITY with Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard is a perfect combination of a premium lens and a coating that provides both superior visual acuity and helps to keep lenses clean from dirt, sweat, sunscreen and sand.”

Introduced nationwide in 2005, DEFINITY uses a patented, two-surface, offset design and digital surfacing to achieve a lower distortion than other progressive addition lenses. DEFINITY features a breakthrough exclusive technology, known as DUAL ADD® which maximizes the available design space of the lens and allows for the least amount of peripheral distortion of any progressive lens, while providing a smoother transition between all distances. DEFINITY also features GROUND VIEW ADVANTAGE™, which reduces the near add power to help minimize distortion and flatten the field of vision. This creates clearer vision when patients look down.

Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard has unparallel durability, superior cleanability and smudge resistance that provides wearers the clearest vision. With an unmatched hydrophobic coating, this coating allows water and oil to simply roll off, with the most minimal cleaning. Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard has incorporated the same technology used in plasma televisions to add an integrated anti-particulate layer into the AR process. The result is a superior AR coating that stays cleaner, longer than any other AR coating, is easier to clean, and because of less cleaning, the lens is less likely to scratch.

Essilor began offering DEFINITY with Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard in late March of 2006.

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Varilux, Crizal and DUAL ADD are registered trademarks and DEFINITY and GROUND VIEW ADVANTAGE
are trademarks of Essilor International, S.A. Crizal Alizé with Clear Guard is a trademark and Thin&Lite is a registered trademark of Essilor of America, Inc.