Sunglasses Lens Guide

Selecting the right lens for your outdoor adventures

MOX sunglasses are designed to perform across a wide range of outdoor sports — from road cycling, mountain biking, and trail running to mountaineering, ski touring, and even kayaking. To help you choose the right lens for your activities and weather conditions, we created two easy-to-read charts: one for summer conditions and one for winter and snowy environments.

In the diagrams below, VLT stands for Visible Light Transmission and indicates the percentage of visible light that passes through the lens. The lower the VLT, the darker the lens and the better it is suited for bright conditions. Photochromic lenses have a VLT range rather than a fixed VLT, as their tint automatically changes depending on the available light. However, VLT is not the only factor that determines lens performance. We therefore also rated the performance of each lens across different weather types. The higher the bar under a certain condition category is, the better the lens will perform in that particular condition.

Note that the Simply Clear lens is included as a bonus lens with every pair of MOX sunglasses you buy.

For clarification: when we refer to extremely strong sunlight, we mean environments such as glaciers, open water, or deserts near the equator — where sunlight is especially intense and reflects strongly.

⚠️ Important: The Onyx Black lens is not suitable for participating in road traffic.

Do I need multiple lenses?

Each MOX lens offers 100% UV protection against UV-A and UV-B rays, meaning you’re fully protected during all your outdoor adventures. However, no single fixed-tint lens can deliver top performance under every possible weather condition. While you can easily use one fixed-tint lens across most activities, choosing an additional lens allows you to optimize your vision whether you’re cycling under bright summer sun, running on overcast days, or mountaineering in high alpine environments.

When you buy a pair of MOX sunglasses, you will always get an extra “Simply Clear” lens for low-light conditions. If you use a fixed-tint lens and want optimal performance across a wider range of conditions, adding another lens to your setup can help you cover different weather and light conditions. Click here to buy additional lenses for your sunglasses.

In some situations, however, changing lenses as the light changes is inconvenient or simply not practical — for example in the middle of a cycling race or while running a marathon. This is where photochromic lenses offer a convenient solution: they automatically adapt their tint to changing light conditions, allowing one lens to cover a much wider range of conditions. You can learn more about them in the next section.

Photochromic lenses for changing light

Photochromic lenses automatically adjust their tint to changing light conditions. In bright sunlight, the lens becomes darker to reduce the amount of visible light reaching your eyes, while in lower-light conditions it becomes lighter. This makes photochromic lenses particularly useful for activities where conditions can change frequently or where changing a lens is inconvenient.

Selected MOX sunglass lenses are also available in a photochromic version, combining the performance characteristics of our Retinex lenses with a tint that automatically adapts to the available light. The VLT range of each photochromic lens is specified on the corresponding product page and in the lens charts above.

Photochromic lenses are activated primarily by UV light. As car windows filter out most UV radiation, the lens will not significantly darken when worn inside a car.

Polarized lenses for less glare

Selected MOX lenses are also available with polarization. Polarized lenses help reduce intense glare reflected from surfaces such as water, wet roads, car windows, and bodywork. This can make details easier to distinguish and reduce eye strain in bright conditions.

The image below illustrates this effect: compared with a standard lens, a polarized lens reduces reflections on the surface of the lake, making the water and what lies beneath it easier to see.

Polarized lenses are particularly useful whenever you spend time in bright, open, or highly reflective environments — for example while road cycling or taking part in water sports.

Lens features

No matter which model you choose, every MOX lens is packed with features to support your outdoor performance:

• Retinex Technology: Enhances contrast and depth perception, giving you sharper and more detailed vision — crucial for spotting obstacles and terrain changes.
• UV400 Protection: All lenses block 100% of UV-A and UV-B rays up to 400nm, protecting your eyes even at high altitudes.
• Mold-Injected Lens: Our premium mold-injection manufacturing method ensures distortion free vision through our lenses.
• Polycarbonate Material: All lenses are made out of Polycarbonate (PC) which makes them strong, flexible and safe.