Myeongdong Station optician: 15-min eye exam after LASIK, 007 Optical

Why we went to 007 Optical near Myeongdong Station

007 Optical is a Namdaemun optician known for progressive multifocal lenses, and apparently it's famous with foreigners as well as Koreans. I had to go to the Shinsegae Department Store main branch on the weekend, so I was back around Myeongdong and City Hall stations for the first time in a while. After finishing at the department store and having a coffee, I heard about 007 Optical and thought, since I'm here, let's drop by. I hear it's super hot with foreign visitors these days.

007 Optical · 30 Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, ground floor of Sangdong Church · Mon–Sat 9:00–19:00 / Sun 11:00–16:00 · Parking in the Sangdong Church underground car park (1 hour free)

Getting to 007 Optical: which is closest, Myeongdong, Hoehyeon or City Hall Station?

007 Optical sits right in the middle of Myeongdong Station, Hoehyeon Station and City Hall Station, so it's very easy to reach from any of them. It had been ages since I'd come to the Namdaemun and Myeongdong area, and wait, are there no Koreans here? It wasn't just the streets, everywhere I went it was all foreigners, and I was so surprised.

Back in glasses after LASIK: picking frames at 007 Optical

As soon as we walked into 007 Optical, the optician was busy with customers who'd arrived before us, so they let us look at frames first, haha.

There were so many kinds of frames, wow. My brother tried on lots of them and said there were so many that choosing was hard, haha. Oh, by the way, my brother is someone who had LASIK surgery, but somehow (who knows how he looked after his eyes) he's back in glasses, so that was the day we came to get his glasses made.

What are progressive multifocal lenses?

007 Optical in Namdaemun specializes in progressive multifocal lenses. They say a progressive lens is a custom lens made specially for one person, correcting near, intermediate and far vision for presbyopia (age-related long-sightedness) all within a single lens.

007 Optical has a huge range of frames and really a lot of sunglasses too. While my brother was trying on glasses, I happily browsed the frames here and there.

There's no set order for ordering lenses and choosing frames, but since they were still serving the earlier customers, my brother picked his frames first.

How long is the eye exam at 007 Optical?

At 007 Optical the eye exam took about 15 minutes, and they ran every test there is. The owner's eye-testing skills are no joke. Usually an exam is over in a flash, but here they were really thorough.

ZEISS on the shop TV

While my brother was being tested, I looked around the shop and saw ZEISS on the TV screen. I got curious, so I looked it up.

ZEISS is the brand of the eye-testing equipment. It's a leading German optics company with more than 170 years of history and world-class standing. They say it makes lenses for everything from eyeglass lenses to camera lenses, medical devices and even the semiconductor lithography equipment that's so hot these days. A bit of TMI: it's also said to be the company with a monopoly on the lenses inside ASML's EUV lithography machines. Lenses going into a monopoly EUV machine, need I say more?

They really spent more than 15 minutes on the eye exam alone, and when it ended they had him put on the "ugly glasses" (the trial frame used for testing) and walk a lap around the shop, haha. So ugly,,

A Namdaemun optician for regular families and foreign visitors

I felt 007 Optical must be an old, established place because one family, whose parents seemed to be regulars, turned up in full force to get glasses for their daughter, who studies abroad and was back in Korea briefly. It looks like a totally ordinary optician from the outside, but quite a few foreigners came in too, following maps. Are glasses K-beauty now, too??

30 minutes for the lenses, so we wandered the Namdaemun alleys

After the whole exam, they said making the lenses would take about 30 minutes, so we strolled the Namdaemun alleys for the first time in a while, poked into interesting shops here and there, and then went back to pick up the glasses.

Glasses care tips from the owner of 007 Optical

At 007 Optical they also adjust the glasses to fit your face after you put them on, and they share care tips. They say lenses are extremely vulnerable to light and neutral detergent.

• Store glasses somewhere cool
• Wash glasses with cold water
• Don't use soapy water when cleaning glasses
• Store them away from direct sunlight

Getting glasses in Myeongdong or Namdaemun? Try 007 Optical

Thanks to the genuinely kind owner of 007 Optical, who gives off total expert vibes, I learned tips for choosing good glasses and how to care for them. No wonder foreigners get glasses made while traveling in Korea,,,!! I highly recommend 007 Optical for glasses in Namdaemun 👍❤️ I'd recommend it if you're looking for a progressive-lens specialist, or want to add a good-value optician to your Myeongdong Station and Namdaemun shopping list.