Macron’s Davos sunglasses spur surge in demand for French maker

At the Davos meetings this week, attention shifted to French president Emmanuel Macron after he appeared wearing reflective Top Gun-style aviator sunglasses. The glasses prompted jokes, memes and speculation about an injury or a deliberate gesture toward other leaders. Macron said he was concealing a subconjunctival haemorrhage in his right eye, describing the condition as "totally benign" and calling it "l’oeil du tigre", a reference to the 1982 song used in Rocky III.

The sunglasses are the French-made Pacific S 01 Double Gold from Maison Henry Jullien in the Jura. Stefano Fulchir, president of iVision Tech, the Italian owner of Henry Jullien, said French opticians alerted him that "the president's wearing our glasses!" and that the company website crashed for most of the day.

Fulchir said Macron's office had contacted the firm in 2024 to buy a pair as a diplomatic gift for the G20 and a second pair for himself; Macron chose to purchase them personally and paid close attention to whether they were entirely made in France. Fulchir said his "first reaction can be summed up in three letters: wow!

It has not been a typical day. I feel very honoured that the president is wearing our glasses." Henry Jullien, founded in 1921 and acquired by iVision in 2023, hand-assembles the glasses at a factory in Lons-le-Saunier, north of Geneva.

Key Topics

World, Emmanuel Macron, Davos, Henry Jullien, Ivision Tech