Jules Baud's Cristalliers, the first-ever glacier glasses. (Julbo) Chamonix is also close to the French department, or county, of Jura, where eyewear was first industrialized in the late 19th century.

No style has been rocked for so long and at such vertical and experiential extremes as leather-side-shield glacier glasses, pioneered and perfected by the French alpine shades maker Julbo.Company ...

Mountain-inspired sunglasses with shields on the temples and bridge are common today — you can get a pair for $89 from Sunski or for more than $500 from Vuarnet — but in 1950, when the French company ...