A frame is held together by a small piece of metal you almost never see, set into the acetate where the temple meets the front. This is the hinge, and on its quality rests much of how the eyewear ages.
In brief
- The hinge is the part that decides how a frame ages: how the temples hold, how the frame closes, how it feels after years of use.
- OBE, founded in 1904 in Ispringen, near Pforzheim in Germany, makes the hinges fitted to every Berenford frame.
- OBE specialises in hinges and metal components for eyewear, and has done so for more than a century.
- A good hinge disappears: the temples open and close the same way, day after day.
- Every Berenford carries a two-year guarantee against manufacturing and material defects, hinge included.
A hinge works harder than any other part of a frame. Every opening, every closing, every time the sunglasses are pushed up into the hair, the load passes through a few millimetres of metal. When a hinge is poorly made, the pin loosens, the temples drift, and the frame no longer holds the geometry it was cut for.
Who makes the hinge?
In Ispringen, near Pforzheim in the south-west of Germany, there is a company founded in 1904 called OBE. For more than a century it has made hinges and metal components for eyewear. Its hinges are the ones Berenford chooses for every frame. Set into Mazzucchelli acetate by the Italian hands that build the frame, they join German metalwork to Italian craft.
The result is felt rather than seen. The frame opens with a smooth, even action and closes with quiet certainty, never a rattle.
Why does the hinge matter every morning?
Sunglasses live a hard life. They are folded shut and pushed into bags. They are opened with one hand while a barista is asked for the second cortado. They are dropped onto restaurant tables, slipped onto the head, slipped onto the collar. A weak hinge betrays a frame inside a season. A great hinge becomes invisible, which is the highest praise an object of daily use can earn.
That is the job of the OBE hinge on every Berenford frame: to be used every day and noticed never.
The guarantee
Every Berenford model is made in a limited edition of 100, and every frame comes with a two-year guarantee against manufacturing and material defects, hinge included. The hinge matters to us because it decides how a frame ages: a sagging temple, a loose action, a tired closure. We chose OBE so that this conversation starts as late as possible.
A small German story inside an Italian frame
It is not the most photogenic detail. You will rarely see it in an editorial. But every Berenford frame joins two long traditions: Mazzucchelli acetate from Castiglione Olona, where the company has worked since 1849, and OBE hinges from Ispringen, near Pforzheim, from a company founded in 1904. The frame you wear at lunch in Saint-Tropez carries both, quietly.
To feel it for yourself, open and close the Sofia Portofino, a cat-eye, or the Françoise Blue Paris, a square. Every model carries an OBE hinge; the action is what you remember.
The Editor, Berenford