I’ve had my current pair since July 2003 and they look terrible already. I paid over $200 out of pocket for them. My guesstimate is a replacement this summer so that means a mere three years from start to junk.
Any other dopers care to comment?
wow…
Maybe I’m the exception but… I’ve my current ones for almost 15 (!) years. Couldn’t really care less about fashion since I don’t wear them all the time.
But actually, I’m picking up new ones this week, because they feel kinda old + my eye sight has changed a bit since then.
I’ve had mine since sometime in 1999, so about 6 years, give or take. They’re getting a bit ragged around the edges, but I only paid about $150 for them. It’s getting about time for a new pair.
My whole family is four-eyed except for the two of us who got Lasik, and for us it’s something like “newest pair gets worn only on special occasions for two years; then it becomes everyday pair without a new pair coming in, while second-oldest pair gets demoted to inthehouseonly; after 3 more years a new pair is bought, and then the reserve pair in the car gets brought to the optician as a giveaway” So a total of about 10 years.
We’ve had frames that lasted less; in my teens I had a pair that would lose one of its screws the whole time and it was a royal pain, it sometimes felt like I spent half my life with my eyes in my hand 
but Mom refused to replace them, she insisted that it was me “treating the glasses badly” :smack:
When I was younger, I’d need a new pair of glasses every 18-24 months. This was partially due to wear and tear, and partially because my eyesight kept deteriorating for a while.
My current pair I’ve had for nigh on five years, I’m guessin’. Maybe six. I never keep track of those sorts of things. I’m long overdue for new ones, though… these ones are beat up like you wouldn’t believe.
i lose glasses before i actually wear them out.
Mine usually last around 3 years. Current pair will need new lenses on account of my gf thinking how funny it would be to drop pebbles off the beach into my backpack… needless to say I was wearing contacts and my glasses were in the pack. Oh how we laughed…
I’ve had mine for about six years or so and wear them daily. I need to get them replaced eventually though… I’m supposed to get new ones every two years so I’m a bit overdue.
My glasses last for years, I only replace them when there’s nothing left to superglue. But I wear contacts during the day so noone gets to see my DIY glasses apart from friends.
I just got new lenses last month. The previous pair lasted more than three years, but the scratches and wear from wiping had gotten too bad to ignore.
That’s every pair of glasses I’ve ever owned. Though I think it’s my fault–I tend to adjust my glasses a lot, and I think it works the screw out until it’s pretty much impossible to keep it in, even with nail varnish. I eventually gave up and for this as well as aesthetic reasons, went for semi-rimless.
I usually get new frames every two years. Since that’s how often I go to the optometrist, I generally get new glasses each time I get a new perscription.
Dang - I just I’m just on a visual downslope - I can barely go a year before I’m squinting again. The glasses I’m wearing now are from last July, and they’re iffy. I don’t think I’ve had a pair go longer than 2 years. I’ve got a pile of perfectly good specs that need to get donated, since they don’t work for me any longer.
Hate to burst your bubble but that’s less time than you think. It’s only 2 years.
It’s been two years for my current pair but they are in need of new lenses due to scratches. I’ll probably end up getting new frames also.
Though I’m sure I’ll put it off for another year or until I can’t see through them…
I think I bought my last pair sometime in 1999, but I had my eyes lasered in March 2001. But everyone complimented me on the glasses when I got them, so I recently had the glasses, which I’ve kept, made into plain sunglasses and am wearing them again. So far, no sign of wear–but they have metal frames. My previous pair was plastic-framed, and they seemed always to accumulate a tiny layer of dirt between the lenses and the frame that I couldn’t get out, so they looked tacky.
Let’s see. My first pair of glasses lasted almost (to the day) one year. They broke randomly one day when I got in my car wrong and hit the side of my head on the top of my door frame. I took them back to LensCrafters, and they were just within their one-year warranty by like a week. 
My current pair, I’ve had for about 2 years (I keep getting new glasses in Januarys. 
My first pair was in January, my replacement for those was a year later in January, and 2 Januarys later, I’m buying some glasses. (Ordered them yesterday, as a matter of fact. Went to Wal-mart, because things are cheaper, and I fell in love with some titanium flex frames that would have run me at least 200 dollars for just the frames at LensCrafters for 108 dollars. Lenses were only 50 bucks, too.)
Usually about two years, and that’s with me wearing them almost every day, all day. I’ve needed new lenses about once a year, as my eyesight keeps deteriorating, though the frames don’t wear out as fast.
The pair I have now I’ve had for a year, but they’re scratched and too “trendy” (they’re dark purple) to look professional at work, so I’m getting a new pair. My company just got a new vision care plan, so that will cover most of the expense, and I should be able to get a really nice pair for around $60, with insurance covering the rest.
I’ve had glasses that have lasted longer, but that was when I was younger and didn’t have to wear them all the time.
I wear my glasses all day, every day. I have kept frames for as long as six years (and could have longer, but they were starting to look dated) and lenses for as long as five. I’m a pretty “still” kind of person, though, so they don’t get much abuse.
I’ve had the pair I am wearing now for a little over a year. The pair I had before these lasted about 2 years. Same with the pair before those. I get a new pair every year, even if I don’t need them, since my insurance covers the lenses and $220 for frames, so my only out of pocket expense is $15 for the exam. I just made my yearly exam last week when I took my kids for theirs. My youngest son needed reading glasses. Even though he picked a pair with Flexon that supposedly are hard to break, I’m giving them six months, tops.
I’ve had the frames that I’m now using for five years, but I’m on my third set of lenses, as I started out with 1.5 and 1.75 and am now at 4 and 4.25, with an astygmatic correction. I like the frames and my father paid way too much for them when we got them. He told be to find a pair that fit right and I liked the way they looked. Well I did, not paying attention to which rack they were on. Yeah, there’s a reason these look nice, they’re Armoni frames. With special lenses because I was a kid (now I just have a dangerous job). Oh well.
My last pair lasted about 6 years,and I still have them for exercise glasses. The main problem is that they were starting to deteriorate from my sweat rather than anything else - the prescription hadn’t changed much since then, and they still fit. They just were getting rusty, and pitted.
Of course my sweat seems to be some kind of industrial corrosive - I can’t wear natural fiber or metal watch bands, at all, they rot within two months, so I can’t really claim that my glasses didn’t survive longer than I’d expected.