OVVO vs LINDBERG: screwless glasses compared

Screwless glasses are what the name says: the arm is joined to the front without a hinge screw. That matters because the screw is a part that can go wrong. LINDBERG's own history page puts it plainly: traditional hinges relied on screws to connect the front of the frame to the temples, adding weight, visible hardware and a constant risk of loosening or failure. Take the screw out of the hinge and there is no hinge screw to work loose.

Of the two, LINDBERG came first. Its first air titanium prototype was made in 1983. The brand dates its screwless spiral hinge to 1986, the year air titanium, its first collection, went on sale, and the year it counts as its official founding, by Poul-Jørn Lindberg and his son Henrik, an architect. Poul-Jørn had opened an optical shop in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1969. LINDBERG says every piece is designed and made in Denmark, and since 2021 the brand has been part of Kering Eyewear.

OVVO is the younger of the two. Its site says it was established in New York in 2010, has been family-owned and independent since the beginning, and carries out every step of production at its own facilities in Poland. Its brand page describes a 14,000 square-foot factory at the foot of Poland's Sudeten Mountains. The brand describes an 85-step production process, with every frame assembled by hand, tested and inspected.

The practical difference for you is simpler than either history. We sell OVVO online, and the table further down lists the OVVO frames we have today. LINDBERG is a brand we carry in our shops but do not sell online, so everything said about it here is to help you compare the two, not to sell you one from this page.

OVVO. OVVO calls its hinge a patented screw-free hinge, and says the design is protected by international patents. In the brand's words, rotary flexible steel takes the place of traditional hinge screws. It describes the joint as a snap-fit: under extreme pressure the flexible material separates, which the brand says is for easy repair. OVVO says the hinge is lab-tested to endure 90 pounds of pulling force and 300,000 rotations, which it likens to 205 years of use. Its style pages also list a hinge-tension adjuster, and the brand says temple tension and pressure can be set to suit the face.

LINDBERG. LINDBERG's signature is the spiral hinge. The brand describes it as a single coiled form that uses the properties of titanium, and precise engineering, to hold the frame in place, and says its patented titanium hinges are made with no screws, rivets or unnecessary elements. The spiral first appeared on air titanium in 1986 and returned in 1993 on air titanium rim, which the brand calls the world's leading wire-frame eyewear. Not every LINDBERG uses the spiral. The strip titanium and acetanium collections, from 1997 and 2001, brought full frame designs with what LINDBERG calls bold cylindrical hinges, and the rimless spirit titanium collection has a hinge of its own. Across the range, the brand says each frame is constructed without any screws or rivets.

What the difference means. Both are built so there is no hinge screw to loosen, and both brands say their frames can be adjusted to fit. They get there by different routes. OVVO's joint is flexible steel in a snap-fit. LINDBERG's signature joint is titanium formed into a coil. A screwless hinge removes one common way for a frame to fail. It is not a promise against every accident, and either brand is still best kept in its case.

OVVO's signature material, in its own words, is a surgical steel and titanium composite: military-grade, it says, and first discovered in spacecraft development. The brand credits it with durability, lightness, flex memory and heat resistance, and says it resists corrosion, so a frame keeps its appearance in hard conditions. It notes that titanium, one part of the composite, is hypoallergenic. OVVO makes other collections too, among them diamond-like carbon, wood and carbon fibre, and a titanium line called Ti2. When this guide was written, every OVVO we listed was from the surgical steel and titanium collection: metal frames, some with a full rim and some with a half-rim, a metal bar along the top of the lens only.

LINDBERG uses titanium in almost every collection. It describes titanium as ultra-lightweight, flexible, durable, hypoallergenic and non-corrosive, says its titanium frames come in 36 colours, and says the colouring is done by a manual method, so each frame varies slightly. It also works in gold, platinum, buffalo horn, fine wood and diamonds, and several of its collections mix materials: acetanium combines acetate with titanium, n.o.w. titanium pairs a thin composite front with titanium temples, and strip titanium is laser-cut from thin plates of titanium.

Weight. Both brands publish figures, and they are not given on the same basis. LINDBERG gives an as-little-as figure for some collections: its rimless spirit titanium frames can weigh as little as 1.9 grams, and n.o.w. titanium, with its thin composite front, as little as 2.3 grams. The pages we read do not say whether lenses are included. OVVO gives a weight on each style page, and for the styles we have checked, full rims and half-rims alike, it reads 0.6 oz with lenses and 0.3 oz without. One is the lightest frame in a collection, the other a figure per style, and we have not weighed either brand ourselves. Both describe their frames as very light: OVVO uses the word feather-light, LINDBERG ultra-lightweight.

This is where the two brands differ most for anyone who wears a prescription, and it is worth deciding before anything else.

A full rim runs all the way round the lens, and the lens is cut to the shape of the rim and held inside it. It is the most straightforward construction for an optician to fit. The OVVO frames we have listed are full rims and half-rims, and the photographs on each listing show which. LINDBERG makes full rims too, among them air titanium rim, its wire frame, and the full metal fronts of strip titanium.

A rimless frame has no rim. Each lens is usually drilled and fixed to the bridge and the arms, so the lens itself becomes part of the frame's structure. LINDBERG says its air titanium was the world's first rimless titanium eyewear, and calls spirit titanium an icon among rimless eyewear; it says each spirit pair is a one-off, made to order and finished by hand. Rimless is more particular work than a full rim. The lens edge is on show, so a stronger prescription's thickness shows too, and the optician may suggest a tougher or thinner lens material. Not every optician offers drilling, so ask before you commit. The rimless frames we do sell online, from other brands, are on our rimless glasses page.

A half-rim, or semi-rimless frame, has a bar along the top only. Some of the OVVO frames we have listed are built this way, and LINDBERG's strip titanium includes half-rimmed models with a titanium upper bar. In a half-rim the lens is usually grooved along its lower edge and held by a fine cord, which again is work to raise with your optician.

Progressive lenses need enough depth in the lens, and the fitting height they depend on is measured in person, with the frame on your face. We never sell progressive lenses online, and we do not sell prescription lenses online at all. Whichever frame you choose, the lenses are fitted by an optician, in our shops or your own, who confirms from your measurements whether that frame suits your prescription. Our lens guide covers what to bring.

OVVO sizes are fixed. On the brand's own style pages, every style we have checked is shown in a single size, so the size on our listing is the size the style is made in, and you can compare it with a pair you already wear before you order.

The table below is read live from our stock, so it shows only what we have today, sorted by eye size, with bridge, temple, lens height, an approximate width across the front and the price. When this guide was written, the OVVO frames in it ran from a 46mm eye to a 55mm, with bridges from 16mm to 22mm, temples of 135mm or 140mm and lens heights from 32mm to 42mm. Those ranges move as frames sell, so trust the table over this paragraph. To find your own width, take the three numbers printed inside the arm of a pair that fits, add the eye size twice to the bridge, and compare. The frame size guide shows how.

LINDBERG works the other way. The brand describes its frames as built from a system of parts, with your own choice of colour, size, temple length, nose pads and more, and puts the number of possible configurations at more than one billion. A LINDBERG can be specified when it is ordered, rather than chosen in a set size. That suits someone who knows exactly what fits them, and it is a fitting conversation that happens with an optician, not on a product page.

OVVO suits someone who wants a thin metal line around the lens or along its top, a size they can check against numbers before buying, and a frame that needs no drilling to glaze. The brand's own claims are about toughness, a hinge tested to 300,000 rotations and eyewear it calls virtually indestructible, so it also suits people who are hard on their glasses. And because every listing carries its measurements, it suits someone buying at a distance who will have lenses fitted by their own optician.

LINDBERG suits someone who wants as little frame as possible, or who wants to choose the parts: size, temple length, colours, nose pads. The brand says spirit titanium is designed to obstruct nothing on the face and is among its lightest. It suits someone whose optician is happy to fit a rimless lens to their prescription, and someone who would rather try frames on in person than buy from a screen.

Both brands describe their titanium as hypoallergenic. If you have reacted to a metal frame before, say so to your optician or doctor: that is each brand's claim about a material, not a promise about your skin.

Decide on the lens first. If you want rimless, that points to LINDBERG: when this guide was written, none of the OVVO frames we listed was rimless. If you want a full metal rim or a half-rim, both brands make them, and the choice comes down to how you want to buy and how much you want to specify.

If you want to buy online, it is OVVO. Measure the pair you wear now, find the closest width in the table above, and order the frame. We ship frames only, with free insured shipping in the US. Returns are accepted within seven days, with a 15% restocking fee, so check the numbers before you order. Then take the frame to your optician for lenses, or have them fitted in our shops.

If you want LINDBERG, contact us and tell us what you have in mind: rim or rimless, the three numbers from the pair you wear now, and any colour you like. We carry LINDBERG in our shops and can talk it through with you. We do not sell it online.

If you still cannot decide, the hinge is not the tiebreaker, because both brands do away with the screw. The rim is. Full rim or rimless changes how the frame looks, what the optician does with the lens, and which of the two brands you end up with.