The Kame ManNen 9505 is a small round frame with thin metal rims. The detail that sets it apart is the bridge: Kame ManNen makes it as one piece with the front instead of attaching it afterward. That is not the quick or easy way to build a frame, and the company does it so the front reads as one continuous line. In the photos, the arch over the nose runs straight into both rims without a seam.
Kame ManNen started in 1917 in Fukui, Japan, as a metal-plating workshop, and became an eyewear maker in Sabae after the Second World War. In 1981 it was the first company in the world to make eyeglass frames from titanium.
Size
Our product page lists the 9505 in two lens widths, 42 mm and 43 mm. Both have a 25 mm bridge and 145 mm arms, and both are $998. The black pair in our close-up photos has 43□25-145 printed on the inside of the arm.
That is a small lens with a wide bridge. For comparison, the Face a Face Frank 1 we wrote about last month has a 19 mm bridge. Add the numbers the way we explained in our Barton Perreira Cecil post: 43 + 43 + 25 comes to 111 mm, and the 42 comes to 109 mm. Then do the same with the three numbers inside the arm of your current glasses.
If your own pair adds up to a lot more than 111, start with the 43. A round frame can feel different from a rectangle with the same numbers, so this one is worth trying on in person before you decide.
The four colors
All four colors were in stock in both sizes when we wrote this. Kame ManNen colors its frames with metal plating and ion plating, a slow process the company says it uses because the finish lasts.
- GD: polished yellow gold on the rims, bridge and arms. The brightest of the four.
- AG: an antique, brushed brass with darker streaks in the grain, so it looks aged instead of shiny.
- TS: a light, polished silver.
- MBK: matte black all over, from the rims to the arm tips, with dark nose pads.
The arms are thin, with a ridged section near the hinge. In our close-up of the black pair, they end in a flat metal tip with a triangle cut out of it rather than a plastic sleeve.
AG
MBK
GD
If you want a pair that looks like it has been around for decades, AG is the one we would try first. MBK is the quietest of the four.
Seeing it in person
Every frame on our website is also in the shop at 105 S Lemon Ave in downtown Sarasota, so you can ask to try the 42 and the 43 side by side and see the four finishes in daylight. Questions first? Call (941) 260-8523. If you need a new prescription, you can book an eye exam with us too.
