EssilorLuxottica Beats Revenue Forecasts as Wearables Hit €486 Million, but Smart-Glasses Growth Slows to 20%

The world's largest eyewear group finally put a number on the business investors have been valuing it on — and the number came with a slowdown attached.

EssilorLuxottica reported third-quarter revenue of €7.49 billion on Tuesday, Oct. 20, up 7.2% at constant exchange rates and 9.0% at current exchange rates from a year earlier. The result beat the €7.36 billion analyst consensus compiled by Visible Alpha, and the market's verdict was immediate: EssilorLuxottica rose 11.1% in early trading on Wednesday, according to Reuters' European market wrap at 0713 GMT, after the beat. A separate Reuters report put the shares up 11.4% by 0712 GMT — two snapshots minutes apart in a fast opening, both pointing the same way.

Wearables finally get a number, and a slower growth rate

For the first time, EssilorLuxottica disclosed the exact revenue of its wearables business: wearable sales reached €486 million in the third quarter, equivalent to roughly 6.5% of total revenue. The category — the AI glasses built with Meta and the Nuance Audio hearing-aid glasses, the latter still a small portion of the total — grew 20% in the quarter. Over the first nine months of 2026, wearables generated €1.26 billion in total sales. That is a real business now, large enough to move a consensus beat and small enough that the core still decides the quarter.

The growth rate is the other half of the disclosure. Sales of smart glasses rose 20% in the third quarter, compared with a rate of nearly 100% in the April-June period. Reuters noted the slower growth partly reflected a challenging comparison with the same period last year, when sales benefited from the category building up — a year-ago base that is no longer small. A category doubling one quarter and growing by a fifth the next is not collapsing; it is normalising against its own success, and investors now have the revenue base to judge that normalisation against.

The core business did the heavy lifting

Direct to Consumer revenue rose 10.6% at constant exchange rates to €4.09 billion, supported by comparable-store sales growth of 6.8%. Professional Solutions revenue increased 3.4% at constant exchange rates to €3.39 billion, against a double-digit comparison a year earlier. By product category, Eyecare & Medtech revenue was €7.00 billion, up 6.5% at constant exchange rates — the traditional business management described as marching at a pace above 6% in both the quarter and the nine months. Within it, the myopia management portfolio grew 24%, in both the quarter and the year to date, helped by Stellest lenses, which were recognised by TIME among its Best Inventions of the Year.

That mix is why the beat landed. Wearables supplied the headline, but a direct-to-consumer business growing at double digits and a core eyecare business growing above 6% supplied most of the €7.49 billion. Nuance Audio Plus, launched in mid-September, is the newest piece of the wearables offer heading into the holiday season, alongside new AI glasses launches the company flagged in its commentary.

Asia-Pacific led, North America grew slowest

By region, Asia-Pacific led growth with a 15.7% increase at constant exchange rates, followed by EMEA at 7.5%, Latin America at 7.1% and North America at 4.7%. North America is the largest region for the company, so its slower rate matters more to the group total than Asia-Pacific's faster one — and Reuters linked the Asia-Pacific double-digit gain in part to the myopia management portfolio. All four regions grew, which is the breadth management pointed to when it said all regions were contributing, with Asia-Pacific standing out.

For the first nine months of 2026, group revenue reached €22.3 billion, up 8.9% at constant exchange rates. EssilorLuxottica also reiterated the shape of its longer outlook: it expects solid revenue growth and broadly aligned adjusted operating profit growth on average over the next five years. That is deliberately unhurried language for a company whose valuation debate is about a fast category, not about whether the core can keep compounding.

A stock that had roughly halved gets a reprieve

The size of Wednesday's jump needs its context. Over the past year, EssilorLuxottica shares have roughly halved in value, weighed down by concerns over intensifying competition and privacy issues surrounding smart glasses, as well as uncertainty about profitability and governance. Reuters' Wednesday report added that the stock had nearly halved after reaching a record market valuation of €149 billion a year ago, and that the shares, up 11.4% by 0712 GMT, were leading the CAC 40 and trading at their highest price since August.

The caution did not disappear with the beat. Bernstein analysts, quoted by Reuters, warned that the prospect of smart glasses disrupting traditional eyewear will likely stay as a sword of Damocles hanging over the company, and that with Alphabet's Google set to launch its Gemini AI glasses by the end of 2026, a conservative message on fourth-quarter expectations makes sense. In other words, the same category that just produced its first disclosed revenue figure is also the category competitors are aiming at.

What to watch into the holiday season

The tests from here are specific. Watch whether wearables growth stabilises around the new 20% rate or slows further as the year-ago comparisons stay demanding; whether the €486 million quarterly base grows into the holiday season, when the new AI glasses launches and the Nuance Audio Plus rollout should show up in sales; whether North America can accelerate from 4.7% while Asia-Pacific holds anything like 15.7%; and whether management keeps disclosing the wearables figure now that it has started — a one-off disclosure would tell its own story. The quarter's honest summary is a strong one: a clear revenue beat, a core business growing broadly, a first real number for wearables — and a growth rate in that category that now has to prove 20% is a floor, not a waypoint.