The Best Sunglasses of 2016

The best new sunglasses are so high tech they basically give you super vision. Behold their color- and face-enhancing powers.

Sunski Dipseas 

This metrosexy number turns up the style dial with delicious frame colors like the tortoise pictured. The outlook is cool and clear through polarized emerald lenses that are better than you’d expect at this price, though they don’t give enough coverage for hardcore outdoorsiness. Big-headed guys only wish they could wear ’em, because the design’s medium-smallish.

Price $55

Under Armour Captain 

Ahoy. And huzzah. Normcore is dead—even, at last, in sunglasses designed for boating. UA builds in all the serious nautical necessities—anti-wetness lens coatings, anti-glare polarization, big coverage—in a unit that does not embarrass onshore. The Captain is also good for general action sports, but with the camo print and racy lines, it’s probably a mite too athletic for the street. 

Price $155

Smith Tioga 

Smith freshens up its classic lifestyler, first introduced in 1993, with darkish polarized synthetic lenses that deliver a sharp-edged view in serious sun. The gray-green is a root sunglasses tint, going back decades, but there’s nothing old-school about the super-sharp optics. Black frames make these shades all the more trad-manly. You’re the boss. 

Price $119

Dragon Marquis 

Deep purple-red lens mirroring thrums and sizzles, as if the Marquis stores gigawatts of power. The polarized optics amaze—crisp and high contrast with depth so deep, 3-D looks like 3.5. The Marquis has watersport bona fides, like liquid-shedding lens coatings and frames that float, but light leak at the sides disqualifies it as serious sportswear. 

Price $180

Zeal Optics Big Timber

This chunky multisport wrap is a techno-logical twofer. The synthetic lenses are both photochromic, meaning shading adjusts to light intensity, and polarized, so they filter out glare. The warm tint range—from yellow to denser brown—pumps up contrast and depth. Basically, you see things better sooner. 

Price $219

Maui Jim Legends 

MJ delivers us from blah this winter with frames made out of a new, jumped-up synthetic reptile called Tokyo Tortoise. Likewise, there’s a kink in the dressed-up design, which looks expensive without trying to. So superb are the optics of the polarized lenses, your reviewer mistook them for high-price glass. The lightish green-gray tint is great as long as the sun isn’t hammering.

Price $279