Which Cartier frame fits you: Santos, Panthère and the rest, by eye size

Eight questions bring most people to this page. Here are the short answers. The rest of the guide explains them.

• Cartier glasses size guide. The frames in stock run from 51mm to 64mm across the eye, which is about 120mm to 141mm across the whole front. The largest group, 13 of the 32, sits at 56 or 57mm.
• Which Cartier glasses fit my face. Read the numbers on the temple of a pair that already fits you. Match the eye size within 2mm and the bridge within 2mm. Chapter two shows how.
• Santos versus Panthère. The brand's site says the Santos de Cartier eyewear pays homage to the Santos watch through its signature motif, the screw. The Panthère de Cartier eyewear celebrates the panther, the brand's emblematic animal. Screw, Santos. Panther, Panthère.
• Santos versus Première. The brand's site says the Première de Cartier frames echo its first eyewear styles from the 1980s, in noble materials with a gadroon motif. Santos is squared, with the screw. Première carries the gadroon and, on the brand's site, wood accents.
• CT0092O. Gold metal rectangle, 52-19-140, about 123mm across, 28mm deep. $1,210. The shallowest lens in stock.
• CT0344O. Gold metal rectangle, 56-19-145, about 131mm across, 33mm deep. $1,345. A full size up from the CT0092O.
• Cartier rimless glasses in gold. Yes. Eighteen of the 32 frames in stock are rimless, most of them gold. The rimless gold optical frames are the CT0092O (52-19-140), the CT0058O (52-18-130), the CT0344O, the CT0286O, the CT0290O, the CT0578O, the CT0049O and the CT0052O in rectangles, the CT0120O cat-eye and the CT0593O geometric. The nearest to a classic rimless gold rectangle are the CT0092O and the CT0058O (52-18-130, about 122mm across).
• What the model number means. Read on.

Every Cartier frame here carries a code like CT0344O 003. CT is the brand prefix. The four digits are the model. The letter after them is the type. O is optical, a frame for prescription lenses. S is sun. SA is also sun; the two in stock, the CT0506SA and the CT0471SA, are both acetate.

The three digits after the space are the colour. One model can come in several. The CT0554O is here as 001, Gold, and as 002, Silver. Same 56-18-145 frame, same $1,645, different finish. When you compare prices elsewhere, match the colour code as well as the model, or you are comparing two different frames.

Three numbers describe a frame: eye size, bridge, temple. Eye size is the width of one lens. Bridge is the gap between the lenses. Temple is the arm. Doubling the eye size and adding the bridge gives the width across the front, which is the number that decides whether a frame fits.

The Cartier frames in stock run from 51mm to 64mm across the eye. The narrow end is the CT0567O (51-19-140, about 121mm across) and the CT0052O (51-18-140, about 120mm across); across the front, the CT0056O (52-16-135) is also 120mm. The wide end is the CT0358S (64-13-145, about 141mm across), a sunglass. Between them, the largest group sits at 56 or 57mm across the eye, which is 130mm or so across the front.

A 120mm front suits a narrow face. A 130mm front suits an average one. A 140mm front suits a wide face, or a face that wants a sunglass to wrap a little. If you are not sure, measure the pair you wear now. The numbers are printed inside one temple. Then find the same numbers in the table below.

Two cautions. First, eye size alone can mislead. The CT0092O (52-19-140) and the CT0056O (52-16-135) share an eye size but differ by 3mm across the front, because their bridges differ. Second, bridge width is not just about fit across the front. A 16mm or 17mm bridge sits closer to the nose than a 20mm or 21mm one. On a fine nose the narrow bridge holds. On a broad one the frame rides high. The bridge column matters as much as the eye size.

The store's frame size guide covers the general method. This page applies it to Cartier.

On the brand's site the Santos de Cartier eyewear is described as sunglasses that pay homage to the iconic Santos de Cartier watch through its signature motif, the screw. Most fronts are squared or rectangular, in metal or titanium, with golden, platinum and black finishes. The brand's site also lists a rimless gold rectangle in that line at 56-20-145.

The listings do not name the line, so this guide cannot tell you which of the frames below carry the screw. The product photographs do. What the listings can tell you is which frames have the Santos proportions: squared metal fronts, wide.

Those run from 55 to 57mm here. The CT0578O (55-17-145, about 127mm across) is the narrowest. The CT0344O (56-19-145), the CT0554O (56-18-145) and the CT0286O (56-17-145) all sit near 130mm across. The CT0344O, at about 131mm across, is the widest optical rectangle in stock. In sunglasses the same shape comes as the CT0465S (56-18-145), the CT0582S (56-19-145) and the CT0579S (57-19-145).

All of these rectangles have 145mm temples. That is a long arm. It suits a larger head and gives room to bend the tip behind the ear. On a small head the tip will overhang, and an optician will need to shorten the bend.

Now the narrow bridge. A 56mm eye with a 17mm bridge, as on the CT0286O, puts the lenses close together and the nose pads close to the face. On a narrow nose this is what holds the frame up. On a wider nose the pads sit high and the frame lifts, so the lenses tilt and the top rim crowds the brow. If your nose is broad, choose the 19mm bridge on the CT0344O over the 17mm on the CT0286O, even though the eye size is the same.

The brand's site describes the Panthère de Cartier eyewear as sunglasses with personality that celebrate the untamable elegance of the panther, and calls the line the heir to its iconic feline. The panther is the brand's emblem, and on this line the frame carries it. The brand's site shows the line in smooth golden and platinum metal, in black acetate, and in composite with metal. It also shows rimless fronts, including a rimless gold rectangle at 56-18-145.

As with Santos, the listings do not name the line. Check the product photographs for the panther.

The rimless question matters more than the emblem. A rimless frame has no rim around the lens. The lens is drilled and the bridge and temples bolt to it. That makes the frame light, and it makes the lens do the structural work. A strong prescription is thick at the edge for minus, or thick in the centre for plus. Rimless shows that thickness plainly, and a thick, heavy lens strains the drill points. A light prescription in a rimless frame looks like nothing at all. A strong one looks like glass on a wire.

Eighteen of the 32 frames in stock are rimless, including most of the gold rectangles: the CT0092O, the CT0058O, the CT0344O, the CT0286O, the CT0290O and the CT0578O, the CT0120O cat-eye and the CT0593O. The lightest of them have shallow lenses. The CT0092O is 28mm deep, the CT0058O and the CT0052O 32mm, the CT0344O 33mm. Those depths are fine for single vision. They leave little room for a progressive. The lens guide explains lens materials and what a strong prescription needs from a frame. Chapter six covers the depth problem.

Of the 32 Cartier listings in stock, 21 are metal, 8 are acetate and 3 are listed as acetate and metal together. Each behaves differently on the face.

Metal is the lightest on the nose, because the weight sits in the lenses rather than the front. It carries nose pads on arms, which an optician can bend to raise, lower or widen the fit. That is the main reason to choose metal if your nose is unusual, or if two people in your family have different noses and share a face width. The metal frames here run from the CT0052O at 51mm to the CT0353S aviator sunglass at 62mm (62-15-145, about 139mm across). Colours include Gold, Silver, Gold / Platinum, Gold / Havana and Gold / Black.

Acetate has a moulded bridge with no pads. It fits or it does not, and what an optician can do is warm the front and adjust the temples. It is heavier than metal and warmer to the touch. The eight acetate frames sit at the lower end of the price list, from the CT0291O (54-18-145, about 126mm across) at $595 to the CT0471SA and the CT0472S at $1,195. Colours include Havana, Dark Havana, Burgundy, Black / Grey and White / Grey. The CT0434S (54-23-135) has the widest bridge in stock, 23mm, on a 135mm temple, which is an unusual pairing for a broad nose on a small head.

Acetate and metal covers three frames: the CT0496O round (52-21-145, about 125mm across, $1,145), the CT0056O oval and the CT0579S sunglass. The listings call them acetate and metal. Which part is acetate and which is metal shows in the product photographs, not in the listing, so look before you assume where the adjustment will be.

One frame stands apart on the colour field. The CT0052O is listed as Gold / Red Wood, at $3,095. The brand's site shows wood accents on its Première de Cartier page. Whether this frame is Première, the listing does not say. The colour name is the only place the listing separates it from a plain gold rectangle of nearly the same size, so the wood is where the price goes, and the piece is a slim 51-18-140 with a 32mm lens.

Lens height is the depth of the lens top to bottom. The Cartier frames in stock run from 28mm to 52mm where the listing records it. The shallow ones, all rimless, are the CT0092O at 28mm, the CT0056O at 30mm, the CT0058O and the CT0052O at 32mm, and the CT0344O, the CT0049O and the CT0465S at 33mm. The deep ones are the CT0492O and the CT0417O at 52mm, the CT0353S at 51mm and the CT0593O at 50mm.

Single vision does not care about depth. A progressive does. A progressive lens has a distance zone at the top, a reading zone at the bottom and a corridor between them. Your pupil sits in the distance zone, and the reading zone needs room below it. A short-corridor design wants about 14mm from pupil to the lower edge. A comfortable one wants 17mm or 18mm. On a 28mm lens the pupil sits near the middle, which leaves about 14mm below it. That is the minimum, with no margin for a frame that sits a touch high. On a 33mm lens there is room. On a 40mm lens there is plenty.

So an optician says yes to a progressive in the CT0344O and the CT0049O, with a careful fitting. In the CT0092O, the answer is yes for single vision or for a short-corridor progressive fitted by someone who measures rather than guesses. If your prescription is strong and you want a progressive, choose from the deeper frames, and choose a rim over rimless.

When does an optician say no outright? A rimless front with a high minus prescription, because the edge thickness shows and the drill points carry the load. A prism, in any shallow lens, because prism adds thickness where there is no depth to hide it. The first applies to most of the metal frames here, since eighteen of the 32 are rimless; the deep rimless ones, the CT0593O at 50mm, the CT0466S at 44mm and the CT0120O at 40mm, are the ones that give a strong prescription room. The second applies to any shallow lens.

The Cartier frames in stock fall into three groups by material, and the prices of neighbouring groups overlap at the edge.

• $595 to $1,195. All eight acetate frames, from the CT0291O at $595 through the CT0492O and the CT0434S at $695, the CT0506SA and the CT0358S at $945, the CT0567O at $1,045, to the CT0471SA and the CT0472S at $1,195.
• $1,145 to $1,645. Every metal and combination frame except four. The CT0496O opens the band at $1,145. The CT0092O is $1,210. The CT0593O is $1,245. The CT0417O is $1,295. The CT0344O, the CT0290O, the CT0058O, the CT0056O, the CT0579S and the CT0330S are $1,345. The CT0578O, the CT0465S and the CT0466S are $1,395. Then the CT0120O at $1,445, the CT0398S at $1,495, the CT0353S at $1,545, the CT0410O at $1,595, and the CT0554O and the CT0474S at $1,645.
• $3,095 to $3,595. Four frames. The CT0052O, Gold / Red Wood, and the CT0582S, Gold / Burgundy / Red, at $3,095. The CT0049O and the CT0286O, both listed as Gold / Black, at $3,595.

What moves a frame between groups is material first. Acetate is the least expensive, then plain metal and combination. Then finish and inlay. The wood on the CT0052O puts a 51mm frame at more than twice the price of the plain gold 52mm rectangles, the CT0092O at $1,210 and the CT0058O at $1,345. On the two $3,595 rectangles the listing records only material, metal, and colour, Gold / Black. The reason for the gap between them and a $1,345 gold rectangle is not in the listing. It is in the finish, and the product photographs show it.

Above these, the brand's site lists precious versions, in rose gold with tsavorite garnets on the Panthère page, at prices well above anything stocked here. The prices above are the listing prices.

The surest way to choose between a 52 and a 56 is to put both on. Eye See Optique has two shops, in Arlington and Dumfries, Virginia. The visit page has the hours and directions. Bring your current glasses so the numbers can be compared, and bring your prescription if you have it.

If you order online, the frame ships as a frame, without prescription lenses. Shipping within the United States is free, insured and signed for. Your own optician fits the lenses. If you are local, the Eye Rx practice can fit them. Either way, the person cutting the lenses will want to see the frame on your face to take the fitting heights, which is the measurement that chapter six turns on.

Returns are accepted within seven days of delivery, with a 15% restocking fee. That window is meant for a frame that does not fit, so try it on the day it arrives. Once lenses have been cut for a frame, it is yours.

The table above lists every Cartier frame in stock with its model, colour, size, lens height, width across the front and price, straight from the listings. Use it with this guide. Where a number here and a number on a product page disagree, the product page is newer.