Have smart glasses finally grown up?

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Entrepreneurs – "Have smart glasses finally grown up?"

Host: Monocle Radio (Tom Edwards, Interviewer)
Guests: Will Wong (CEO, Even Realities), Nikolaj Snore (CSO, Even Realities), Michael Ward (Managing Director, Harrods)
Date: February 18, 2026

---

Overview

This episode explores the intersection of cutting-edge wearable technology and luxury retail. The first segment delves into how the smart glasses market is evolving, with a deep-dive into Even Realities, a company determined to bring together fashion, health, and tech in a new generation of smart eyewear. The episode then pivots to the luxury retail landscape in the UAE, with Harrods’ Michael Ward reflecting on why the region is becoming a powerhouse in global luxury and how iconic brands maintain freshness and appeal.

---

Segment 1: Are Smart Glasses All Grown Up?

[00:38]–[19:44]

Even Realities: Building a Next-Gen Wearable

The Origin Story

• Will Wong explains that after engineering at Apple Watch/iPhone, he realized the next transformative wearable could be smart glasses.
  • “Wearables is just another different kind of tech where it's not only tech, it's also fashion, it's also lifestyle, it's health. Right. So it's everything.” — Will Wong [02:39]
• To build best-in-class smart glasses, he assembled a cross-disciplinary team: engineers, designers, optical and medical experts.
  • “When you wanted to make a wearable product good, you cannot only have good engineers. You should also have good designers. You should have people with good taste… and from the medical background…” — Will Wong [03:01]
• Nikolaj Snore, formerly from Lindbergh Eyewear, was recruited for his expertise after being convinced this wasn’t “just another gadget” but real eyewear embedded with technology.
  • “I have been a part of building the best eyewear ever done in Lindbergh. Now I'm part of a team to build the best smart glass product ever been around.” — Nikolaj Snore [05:04]

David vs. Goliath: Competing with Tech Giants

• Wong compares their focused startup approach with the diffused efforts of giants like Apple, Meta, and Samsung.
  • “The bigger companies... they're trying to shoot the target with a shotgun probably 100 meters away… But like for us, we only have one bullet but we're using a sniper gun... we're aiming really straight.” — Will Wong [07:00]
• Smaller scale and unified culture allow Even Realities to be nimble, with Wong knowing every team member personally.
• Snore draws inspiration from companies like Dyson and Tesla, citing that disruptive innovation often comes from ambitious startups.

The Smart Glasses User Experience

• Core features:
  • A heads-up display (HUD) layered at adjustable distances in the user’s vision.
  • Productivity tools aimed at professionals: real-time teleprompters, live translation, and context-aware assistance.
  • “One of the best used features… Upload your scripts from your phone… the script will be floating right in front of you... and the AI is picking up your voice so you know exactly where you're reading, so it's scrolling for you.” — Will Wong [09:47]
  • Used at the Dubai summit: “I actually had my talk points written out on my glasses.” — Will Wong [10:59]
• Live translation: Enables users to speak or follow presentations in foreign languages, with instant subtitling.
  • “I had the whole presentation in a big ballroom, translated directly in my glasses.” — Nikolaj Snore [11:28]
  • “So it's like life with subtitles.” — Interviewer [11:35]
• Security & Privacy: No cameras on the glasses to ensure user and bystander comfort.

Product, Design, and Manufacturing Challenges

• Emphasis on making the glasses lightweight and comfortable:
  • “My biggest concern was weight... There's a certain [acceptable] weight for normal everyday glasses... We basically weighed exactly the same as an average pair of glasses. The battery time is... 48 hours.” — Nikolaj Snore [13:39]
• High adjustability so the glasses adapt easily to different faces.
  • “Can the glass be changed to the face? …we will manage to make them so bendable… adjustability on the nose, on the ears… All that has to go hand in hand…” — Nikolaj Snore [14:32]

Individual Expression & Product Range

• Most eyewear brands offer hundreds of shapes/styles, but top sellers concentrate among a few.
  • Even Realities chose a practical approach: initially two flagship shapes (square and round) with hundreds of prototypes tested for universal fit.
  • “If we only have one square and one round, how can we make those two the best or the most compatible ones for most faces?... The square and the round we end up with looks good... on different faces.” — Will Wong [16:05]
• The discipline of limited choices creates focus and universal appeal.

Market Launch & Strategy

• Their launch began with Europe’s highest-end opticians, validating the product where standards are highest.
  • “If they will accept the product... anybody will accept the quality of our product. So we took... the most difficult part first… rolled it out in four or five months to 350 top end opticians throughout Europe.” — Nikolaj Snore [18:16]
• Just beginning US, Middle Eastern, and Asian expansion, plus developing online distribution.
• Will Wong’s vision: “we definitely wanted to be the absolute category leader… sort of like… EV, you will think about Tesla.”

Notable Quotes

• “It's not impossible to fight against the big ones if you just better. It's all about having a better idea and having good execution.” — Nikolaj Snore [08:51]
• “We wanted to make the smart glasses that's actually balancing out both the medical, both the fashion, and also tech, but while providing you really digital meaning to your life.” — Will Wong [04:17]
• “So it's like life with subtitles.” — Interviewer (Monocle Host) [11:35]

---

Segment 2: The UAE’s Growing Luxury Market

[19:44]–[27:28]

Michael Ward on the UAE, Harrods, and Modern Retail

Why the UAE?

• Ward explains that the UAE is now a magnet for luxury retail, driven by a new generation eager for brand experiences, not just purchases.
  • “It's natural that luxury gravitates here. And this is a younger generation of people who have learned luxury and grown up with the brands. So it's natural that they move forward and progress with those brands…” — Michael Ward [20:40]
• New brands from the Gulf are appearing in Harrods, not just being imported.

Dynamism vs. Tradition

• The UK is “wrapped in tradition”; the UAE operates with fewer barriers and greater appetite for innovation.
  • “We've got a lot of tradition in the UK, whereas here there doesn't seem to be any barriers to where they wish to go… And I think it's that lack of barriers that's the really exciting part.” — Michael Ward [21:24]

Supporting Young Designers

• Harrods supports regional initiatives like Fashion Trust of Arabia and hosts showcases for global young talent.
  • “Giving the world stage to young talent is important to us.” — Michael Ward [22:34]

Staying Relevant and Fresh

• Harrods’ reputation isn’t taken for granted; every year they “earn” their position via innovation, quality, and service.
  • “The worst possible thing a person can be is complacency. So we have no natural right. We have to go out every year and we have to earn it.” — Michael Ward [22:57]
• Adopts a data-driven, regional persona approach to cater to global high-net-worth clients.
  • “With social media now and with insights, we can actually get all of that information.” — Michael Ward [24:56]

The Emotional Core of Harrods

• On returning to Harrods after years:
  • “I come out of the tube every morning and I see that building and it makes me smile… It's 20 years of your life. If you're not emotional or you haven't got this real passion for it, don't do it. It's not a 9 to 5.” — Michael Ward [26:53–27:07]

Notable Quotes

• “We have to understand their product requirements and making we present it in a traditional quintessential way. But that doesn't mean that we can't be playful with product.” — Michael Ward [25:08]
• “We’ve got the best merchants in the world… constantly looking around the world for the very, very, very best product. We then become relevant to those companies because they want to be in Harrods.” — Michael Ward [25:55]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:32] Will Wong’s “elevator pitch” for Even Realities.
• [05:54] Competing with big tech’s scale.
• [09:26] UX and feature set of Even Realities smart glasses.
• [11:15] Real-time translation use case.
• [13:39] Overcoming design and comfort barriers.
• [17:23] Balancing individual expression with manufacturing realities.
• [18:16] Market entry strategy and expansion.
• [20:40] Michael Ward on luxury retail in the UAE.
• [22:11] Supporting regional and global fashion talent.
• [26:53] The emotional connection to the Harrods legacy.

---

Conclusion

This episode provides an engaging exploration of innovation at the intersection of technology and lifestyle. Even Realities shows how smart glasses, once dismissed as awkward gadgets, are becoming refined, daily-use products—fuelled by engineering rigor and design discipline. Meanwhile, Harrods demonstrates how established brands evolve, blending tradition with a fresh, customer-focused approach, especially in vibrant emerging markets like the UAE.

Listeners come away with a sense that in both tech and luxury, the future belongs to those who combine craft, vision, and the courage to lead rather than follow.

Transcript

[Tom Edwards]

In April, Monocle hosts the Entrepreneurs Live.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

In Shanghai, a one day conference bringing.

[Tom Edwards]

Together founders, investors and innovators shaping businesses.

[Michael Ward]

Across China and the wider region. Join us there and visit monocle.com conference for more.

[Tom Edwards]

Hello and welcome to the Entrepreneurs on Monocle Radio. The show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business. On today's program, we're heading for some winter sun in the uae. First we'll meet the team behind a company making smart glasses with features like real time translation.

[Nikolaj Snore]

I don't speak Chinese myself. I had the whole presentation in a big ballroom, translated directly in my glasses.

[Tom Edwards]

And later we'll hear from the boss of Harrods about the luxury retail opportunities in the United Arab Emirates.

[Michael Ward]

We've got a lot of tradition in the uk, whereas here there doesn't seem to be any barriers to where they wish to go. And I think it's that lack of barriers that's the really exciting part.

[Tom Edwards]

This is the Entrepreneurs with me. Tom Edwards, You're listening to the entrepreneurs. Loyal listeners to Monocle Radio may well know that we recently descended on the World Government Summit in Dubai. Our team on the ground was broadcasting from our very own radio studio at the summit, speaking to leaders from the worlds of politics and and business alike. Among the many illustrious figures we hosted at our pop up studio were the very clever co founders of Even Realities, a smart eyewear brand combining cutting edge digital tech with timeless design. Even Reality's CEO Will Wong has a background in engineering and started the company two years ago. He was joined by his co founder and CSO Nikolaj Snore, a man with Denmark's celebrated Lindbergh Eyewear amongst others on his cv.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Will, let me start with you because this is an amazing business. Of course it's about eyewear, but it's about cutting edge innovation, being at the vanguard. Give us the elevator pitch. You must have done it a thousand times. Do it again for us, right?

[Will Wong]

Yeah. So the reason we got into this business is because I'm a hardware engineer. I love a mechanical engineer by training. I really love good products. I used to work at Apple on Apple Watch and iPhone. That's where I got really interested into building wearables because wearables is just another different kind of tech where it's not only tech, it's also fashion, it's also lifestyle, it's health. Right. So it's everything. After building Apple Watch, I felt like what could be the next wearable tech form factor that would be even more interesting or impactful than Watch? The answer is pretty apparent. It's smart glasses. I just decided, okay, if I really wanted to do it the way I wanted to make it happen, I probably should start my own business doing it. So I started on my own business, really trying to bring the best talents from different categories. Because what I learned from my previous background is also when you wanted to make a wearable product good, you cannot only have good engineers. You should also have good designers. You should have people with good tastes. You should also have people with medical background so they know what they're doing with the optical, with the optometry side of things. Right. So it's a really mixed team. So that's essentially what I started to do for the past two, three years to really scout the right people from different disciplines, the right experts. So like Nicolas here is the experts from eyewear industry, formerly the chief commercial officer at Lindbergh, which is also one of the most renowned eyewear brand. But then also we have really expert medical staffs or hospital principals coming from eye doctor background or eye hospital background. So the team right now, it's a really good mix of experts from different fields. And we really believe that we wanted to make the smart glasses that's actually balancing out both the medical, both the fashion, and also tech, but while providing you really digital meaning to your life. Right. So that's also why we're naming the company Even Realities, which is bringing physical reality and the digital reality to an event point.

[Tom Edwards]

Amazing. That's a very good pitch.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

You can tell, you can tell you've.

[Will Wong]

Done that a few times.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

And we'll talk more about that amazing mix and what that mix of that interdisciplinary mix that interesting intersectionality has done for the business. But you were mentioned there in dispatches, and we know that there's a Limburg brand you could have presumably just carried along in traditional eyewear.

[Nikolaj Snore]

Why?

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Did this appeal?

[Tom Edwards]

No.

[Nikolaj Snore]

When I left Lindbergh, Will came to me. We met up in Shanghai. I lived in China for 20 years. And he asked me if I would like to help him to do this new smart glass concept. And I first said, I'm not really sure that I'm the right guy, because I thought he first meant gadget. But then we discussed a little bit further. He said, no, no, no, let me explain what I really want here. I don't want to make a gadget. I want to make a pair of real eyewear with really good lenses with amazing technology into it. And when he start to explain it to me what that was, I said, I'm on board here. I have been a part of building the best eyewear ever done in limber. Now I'm part of a team to build the best smart glass product that ever been around. And I think we are getting very close to it. Hopefully at least.

[Tom Edwards]

Hopefully, yeah.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

And tell me though it's interesting because you were talking Will about building this team of interdisciplinary talents, right. But in this space the huge players bench theme used to work for one have so much advantage in terms of, of the clout they have. How do you compete?

[Will Wong]

Yeah, so that's also the thing. Like I also came from that big tech background, so I actually also know what they're good at and also got frustrated by what they're bad at. Right. So essentially what I noticed is at least nowadays the big tech companies, although they say that they're going to invest for example in the smart glasses category, the organization is just so big that they cannot just focus on one client clear single vision that sharply as it can done before. Right. So I wouldn't like being pointing fingers but like all those companies right now, they have different strategic focuses. Then even just for one direction they have multiple visions. The department head, they will have their own idea, the founder will have their own idea, CEO will have their own ideas. So it's just really hard to really carry out a clean slate vision in those bigger companies. So at the end of the day we like to make an analogy where we're all trying to shoot a target. Where the bigger companies are, they're trying to shoot the target with a shotgun probably 100 meters away, right? So no matter how many ammo I gave it to you, you cannot shoot the target because you are not really aiming straight. You just think that you have so much ammo you're just gonna spray around. But like for us we only have one bullet but we're using a sniper gun, right? So we can shoot it like 500 meter away from it, but we're aiming really straight. So that's how we're competing to have a really, really clear vision. And on top of it you need to have like I said, the world class team. Obviously Apple, Meta, Samsung, those bigger players, they also have great team but they might not have a great team that's really working coherently together. Right. They get the, the best talents from everywhere. But also the culture is mixed and also everybody has their own agenda. But versus us, we only have like one mission and everybody should have the same value, shared value and shared culture. We also have like way less layers. So I get to every individual very easily. So I actually like right now we have 200 people where I know every one of them. It's different, I think a different momentum, different culture, different way, how speed things are going now.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

It's a different. It's a reverse economy of scale. It's that nimble. It is B2B fleet foot. And does that take some adjustment? I mean, Limberg is a very big player. You've worked, as you said, in these, in these big corporate machines. Is it fun to kind of be back in something that's got that nimbleness to it? No.

[Nikolaj Snore]

I'm a little bit back to where I started in Lindbergh, where with a small team, we build with talent, we deal with agility, we have a clear vision what we want. So it makes a lot of fun to be in a startup environment. People are working extremely hard. We have a team from all over the world from day one. That's also something I like. When Will, he said, I'm not looking for people coming from this country or that country. I'm looking for the best talents. And where do we find the best talents? Let's look for them. We have people sitting now in Berlin. We have people in London, we have people in Switzerland.

[Will Wong]

We have people Portugal.

[Nikolaj Snore]

Portugal sitting. We have people in the us we.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Have people very, very nice to sit in Portugal.

[Nikolaj Snore]

Yeah. So we really try to sit that T team. And I think just to come back to what Will said, look at Dyson, look at Tesla, look at Dreamy. This brand for 10 years ago, nobody ever talked about they are leader in the category today. So it's not impossible to fight against the big ones if you just better. It's all about having a better idea and having good execution.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Well, let's talk about good execution. Let's talk about the product that is the hero after all. Will, tell me you're wearing the glasses.

[Will Wong]

Yeah.

[Tom Edwards]

What are you seeing?

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

What's the interface? I know it's hard on radio.

[Will Wong]

Yeah.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

You can't show people kind of give us the ux.

[Will Wong]

Yeah. So essentially it's a everyday display, smart glasses. It's supposed to replace your everyday glasses with your prescription. Why not? And then on top of it it has this HUD green monocolor HUD that's floating around the 2 to 5 meters away from you. You can adjust how far away it is. And then also it's a sort of like a hologram display where you have different layers. So we actually designed the UI UX to be multi layer where some of the information is further away, some more Important information, more origin or instant information is closer to you, so it's actually easier for you to change your attention between different topics. And then on top of that, we really focus on like daily product productivity tools instead of trying to build a gadget or entertainment device. So essentially all the features are revolving around how to help people work better or how to help people be more productive. So for example, some of the best used features, one of them are really suitable for the summit. Here is the teleprompter. Upload your scripts from your phone and edit it on the fly. And then you hit start. And then the script will be floating right in front of you, two, three meters away from you. Right. And then you can read off of the script. And the AI is picking up your voice so you know exactly where you're reading, so it's scrolling for you. So that's actually.

[Tom Edwards]

Is that happening now? I'm.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Now I'm becoming this off script.

[Will Wong]

But they are, they are very good.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

At, they're very good at talking about it.

[Will Wong]

Right, Right. But yeah, like this morning I was at a round table. I actually had my talk points written out on my glasses. So it was really helpful. And we have a multiple. We actually run into few speakers that they're using our glasses and. Yeah.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

So okay, that must be an amazing moment.

[Michael Ward]

Right?

[Nikolaj Snore]

Sure.

[Will Wong]

Like I was calling out like people are saying, oh, are you Will from your reality?

[Nikolaj Snore]

So I was like, yeah, and you can do the other way around too. We. I was going to speak in Chinese a few days ago, one and a half hour. I don't speak Chinese myself. I had the whole presentation in a big ballroom translate directly in my glasses.

[Michael Ward]

Yeah.

[Tom Edwards]

Wow.

[Will Wong]

So it's kind of like watching movie with subtitles.

[Nikolaj Snore]

Yes.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

So it's like life with subtitles.

[Nikolaj Snore]

Exactly. You're suddenly in how conversation, how smart can it get?

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

So it can work in another language? Can it start to decode body language? Is it going to start to say, oh, look, you know, this person in the bar is actually making a move. Can it do that? Is that in the potential?

[Will Wong]

That's the thing. Like, it's not that hard for the AI to realize that. But that requires you to add a camera on the glasses. And that's actually what we, at least for now, we're against. Because we feel like this should be a everyday essential tool. It shouldn't be something that might potentially make people uncomfortable. Right. Like for example, sitting like this, if all of a sudden you wear camera glasses, going to those meetings, everybody will feel uncomfortable. Like you're recording. So we feel like we wanted this to be something that people can feel safe about. Just like when you wake up every day they put on your everyday glasses. You wouldn't be thinking about okay, can I actually wear it? Should I wear it in this location? Yeah. So that's why we're care about. There is definitely more contextual AI features that we're building. For example, one of the feature we're calling a conversate essentially it's what you can turn it on during any important conversations where the AI will try to start do live transcription on what we're talking about and also try to find fill in while we. We have this little prompt called AIQ where it's telling me what you're talking about explaining some of the details or if you said some technical jargon I don't understand. Right. It'll just pop up and tell me what it is. Yeah. To try to a person's name.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Yeah. I was going to say it might struggle to make sense.

[Nikolaj Snore]

You say Tony Blair and I might not know who that is. And then suddenly Tony Blair will be like a push and then say former Prime Minister.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Let me ask you a question about integrating this tech seamlessly into great design. Because you keep, you mentioned, you know, limber. We. We know. Well I imagine we know what people associate with that brand.

[Will Wong]

Yeah.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Great design. Simplicity of design. Often were you concerned about the capacity you'd have as a design object to integrate all of this technology elegantly?

[Nikolaj Snore]

My biggest concern was weight. So that was something we discussed and said there is a certain brains for normal everyday glasses can wait if there's more than that. You will simply not wear them every day. That just doesn't work. And we are more or less in the. In the mid range of what eyewear is. So we see we are average. But we have to remember we have two batteries. We have two micro projectors, we have two CPUs. We have a cord cabling in. We got into a weight that you actually can wear and a battery time that last two days at the same time it doesn't.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

They don't look like they could contain exactly. I mean I know there's micro.

[Will Wong]

Micro.

[Nikolaj Snore]

That's the whole idea. That's the whole idea. So we basically weighed exactly the same as an average pair of glasses. The battery time is like I said is 48 hours. So that means they become an everyday glasses. And then there's a third thing. What you just ask is how good are they to be adjusted to the face?

[Will Wong]

Because.

[Nikolaj Snore]

Because every nose, every Ear. Every face is different. And that was my concern in the beginning. Are they able, are they going to be like a scar folding in your face? They're just like, you have to change the face to the glasses or can the glass be changed to the face? And we will manage to make them so bendable in the material and will can maybe talk a little bit more about the material to the adjustability on the nose, on the ears so they become comfortable. Because that is something with weight. This is something with weight balance. There's something material choice and something with flexibility. All that have to go hand in hand in order to make them. An everyday device you can wear from 7 o' clock in the morning until you go to bed at night without being disturbed.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Well, we'll talk about that because I guess one thing that people like about eyewear and actually my glasses kind of do look a little bit like same shape, but people really like to express their personality through their frames. It's a very singular thing. If you're like me, pretty blind, you wear them Almost well, not 24 hours a day. Well, you know, mostly. What's the capacity to allow more people individual expression?

[Will Wong]

Exactly. I think that's also one of the concern we had going to this because we know that most brands, eyewear brands have like hundreds or even more SKUs, right. They wanted to provide different shapes, different colors, different designs, like you said, individually express their own tastes. But we also noticed one thing, that even if these brands have like hundreds of SKUs, the best sellers are almost always the top five. The top five takes up like more than 90% of the sales. And then all the rest are like long tail. Right. So we kind of figured, okay, people might not be that individualized, right. Like when you come into picking our frames. Because also there aren't that many people with go to the extreme to find something that's not their company looking. So we ended up thinking, okay, probably five different shapes will just be enough to fill the whole population. But then still for us, five at the early stages of the company is still too many. Right? Because you are talking about tech product, not just a frame product. If you look at iPhone, there's only certain models, right? There won't be like 10 different models. And one year, you just simply cannot make it. So we figured, okay, if we cannot make five, what would be the minimum we can do at the moment? And we found out it's two. Because there are by nature square ones and the rounded ones. Right. So then the question became, if we only have one square and one, one round. How can we make those two the best or the most compatible ones for most faces? So that's essentially what we did to try to tackle this issue. We like for each shape, we actually ran through like hundreds of iterations. We have like hundreds of model made just for one shape. And at the end of the day, the square and the round we end up with looks good when we're putting it on different faces.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Well, it's almost that thing. Sometimes there's too much optionality.

[Will Wong]

Right.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

It's actually if you restrict. Not restrict your. Well, no, if you restrict yourself, it can actually be liberating.

[Nikolaj Snore]

I come from the world with about 5 billion combinations. And when we talked about create the collection and like Will just said you had to restrict yourself into two, three or four shapes, you know, that's quite an exercise to do. But it was possible to do it when we did that whole exercise of making 2, 300 shapes and fitting them down to 2 to cook them down. And that will fit about 90% of all vases.

[Interviewer (Monocle Radio Host)]

Good discipline. Look, a final thought. Give us some ideas about the growth of this business. Nikolai, in terms of what you've done already, how ambitious are you being in terms of expansion and markets and product range and so forth? It may be a little early in the journey. It's still such a young business. It's always hard to believe. But give me some, give me a couple of, a couple of numbers.

[Nikolaj Snore]

We did a little bit unorthodox approach. We decided to approach the most high end opticians in the world world and they locate in Europe. So we took the most difficult part first and say if they will accept the product in all aspect means the shape, the lenses and the tech. If they will accept anybody will accept the quality of our product. So we took basic up to mountain peak at the beginning and we were able to roll it out in four or five months to 350 top end optician throughout Europe. Now we expand into US Middle east, into Asia as well. That's the next step. We're doing our online platform we have as well. And then we will look into other channels as well. So that's kind of the starting point. We took it more difficult as we could have done. But we think and we know now that was the absolute right decision to do so. We are placed in the best optical shops now throughout the world already. Yeah.

[Will Wong]

Then at the end of the day we definitely wanted to be the absolute category leader that's really leading the category. Defining the category, sort of like we're Mentioning ev, you will think about Tesla. When you're mentioning about AI model, you will think about open AI. So that's where we want to put in putting Even Reality Set. Not to just build a really small niche brand, avoiding competition with the bigger tech companies, but to actually be being able to lead the category and have them follow us.

[Tom Edwards]

That was Even Reality's CEO Will Wong and his co founder Nikolai Snore. You can find out more about the business by heading to evenrealities.com. You're listening to the entrepreneurs. We're staying in the United Arab Emirates, but heading along the coast to Abu Dhabi Now. The capital has just hosted the first Middle east edition of Shop Talk Luxe at Emirates Palace. The event drew more than 2,000 guests and top names in premium retail, highlighting the region's growing influence on worldwide consumer trends. Among the attendees were the Managing Director of Harrods, Michael Ward, and Monocle's own golf correspondent, Insaman Rashid. Insi caught up with Michael to chat about the global luxury landscape. He began by asking him how the UAE is carving out its own lane.

[Michael Ward]

Well, I think the two things is, firstly, as a luxury retail, the top stores are always in the uae, so it's natural that luxury gravitates here. And this is a younger generation of people who have learned luxury and grown up with the brands. So it's natural that they move forward and progress with those brands and become more demanding and want experiential. They want the other side decide to touch that brand, not just simply, I'm going to buy a handbag.

[Insaman Rashid]

And what are you finding out about here specifically? You know, are they doing luxury different to how you've experienced in your many years in the uk, in Harrods? Are you finding that they're. They're going about it a bit differently here? Is it a different way of doing it?

[Michael Ward]

I think there's a modernity to it. We've got a lot of tradition in the uk, whereas here there doesn't seem to be any barriers to where they wish to go. And I think it's that lack of barriers that's the really exciting part. If you look into Dubai, the number of restaurants opening every year, it's just eye watering. And it's that momentum, not only in the hospitality sector, that then goes through to new and developing brands. So there's some real creativity across the whole board here.

[Insaman Rashid]

And that's the important thing as well, because, you know, a lot of people have seen the uae, the Gulf, as a huge importer to a lot of these brands. But actually now we're seeing that there are many brands coming from the region as well into spaces like Harrods. I mean, that must be quite a nice thing for you to see.

[Nikolaj Snore]

Well, it is.

[Michael Ward]

And we're a great supporter of Fashion Trough of Arabia, where we look at young designers and we showcase those young designers in the store because we have got a, almost the other side of the code. We'll have a product for you, but we've got to look at that next generation. And therefore that's why we do Fashion Trust of Arabia. And we also do, next week we open labelhood, which is showcasing the very best of Chinese young talent. So actually giving the world stage to young talent is important to us.

[Insaman Rashid]

Why is it important for Harrods, this staple, this absolute kind of concrete position that it has in the UK and globally? How, how important is it that you are reaching out to the rest of the world, that you are keeping the doors open to invite global talent into Harrods?

[Michael Ward]

Our position is only earned every year. The worst possible thing a person can be is complacency. So we have no natural right. We have to go out every year and we have to earn it. And we have to earn it by helping the young of that area. We have to earn it it by getting the most exquisite brands and we have to earn it by actually delivering amazing service. So there is nothing that we can take for granted.

[Insaman Rashid]

And obviously you can't dismiss this region. You obviously have a huge affiliation with Qatar, with Doha. Tell us a bit about that relationship and why, why the region, I guess, is so important for Harrods, Doha's ownership.

[Michael Ward]

They're a sovereign wealth fund in a great, great shareholder to have. What we've got to be is consumer centric, not shareholder centric. And this area for us is, if you look at all of the statistics, this is where the money tree is going to be. So we would be silly if we didn't come here and every period of time make sure that we were relevant to this customer.

[Insaman Rashid]

Talking a bit about your targeting of high net worths and ultra high net worths, I want to understand from your perspective in the position that you have, how are you constantly changing and adapting to ensure that you are giving the best possible experience to that market that is always looking for something new.

[Michael Ward]

Well, it's quite interesting because it's not just a market. So what we do is we have a set of Personas and those Personas are absolutely based on purchasing habits and what we perceive with you with many touch points points, but those Personas vary by region. How you consume information in Saudi Arabia and how you present yourself is entirely different to Kuwait, is entirely different to Dubai. So what we have got to look at is going backwards, what do you communicate with? What are your brand preferences? And with social media now and with insights, we can actually get all of that information.

[Insaman Rashid]

But there is an un allure of Harrods and its absolute tradition which really pulls in the people from this region. Right. You go there now and every third person you see is someone from the gcc.

[Michael Ward]

But that's our DNA. We are quintessentially British. How we attract and seduce that customer into coming to us has got to be on their terms. We have to understand their product requirements and making we present it in a traditional quintessential way. But that doesn't mean that we can't be playful with product.

[Insaman Rashid]

And how are you keeping the brand fresh? How are you keeping it so that, yes, okay, you've got these years of history, you've got this years of tradition, but in this kind of ever evolving world that we're in and the way that luxury is going, it feels like a lot of brands are doubling down on luxury as well. When we talk about, you know, we're just hearing you on the stage about hospitality, hospitality, about airlines as well, how are you staying fresh and keeping the Harrods brand moving forward?

[Michael Ward]

We're in a constant hamster's wheel, as I say. We've got constant change. We've got the best merchants in the world. Those merchants are constantly looking around the world for the very, very, very best product. And that's where we actually go through because we then become relevant to those companies because they want to be in Harrods.

[Tom Edwards]

They want.

[Michael Ward]

So we can get the new, the interesting, the fact that we have got the Boo Boo boutique in the store, testament to the fact is, yes, we've got this heritage, but we know that's what our customer wants because they want it on their Birkin.

[Insaman Rashid]

I want to ask you one final question, Michael, and that's about, you know, you're flying back to London tomorrow when you walk back into the Harrod store, not your office, but straight into the store itself. And you've been doing it for many, many years. How does that feel today, doing it? Is it different to how you felt when you first did it many years back?

[Nikolaj Snore]

No.

[Michael Ward]

I come out of the tube every morning and I see that building and it makes me smile.

[Insaman Rashid]

It makes you emotional as well?

[Nikolaj Snore]

Yeah. Why?

[Michael Ward]

Because it's 20 years of your life. And I don't think that you could. If you're not emotional or you haven't got this real passion for it, don't do it. It's not a 9 to 5. If you want something to be the best, you've really got to work at it. And I think that that's the importance.

[Tom Edwards]

That was Michael Ward, the managing director of Harrods, in conversation with Monocle's interman Rashid. And at Shoptalk Lux Abu Dhabi, you can find out more by heading to lux.shoptalk.com and of course, if you can't pop into Michael's little corner shop over in Knightsbridge to say hello, why not try heading to harrods.com. And that's all for this episode of the Entrepreneurs. We'll be back at the same time next week. The show is produced by Laura Kramer with audio editing by Jack Dewars. Listen again and find out [e-mail] or follow us wherever you get your audio. If you'd like to get in touch, do email Laura. She's on lrkonocle.com I'm Tom Edwards. Goodbye and thanks for listening to the Entrepreneurs.