Meta Connect 2025 didn’t come to play. The tech giant used its biggest stage of the year to announce a brand-new collab with Oakley: the Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses, designed with runners, cyclists, and hardcore fitness folks in mind. Price tag? $499. Launch date? October 21.
Now, Meta has been in the smart glasses game for a while — usually leaning toward everyday wear with Ray-Bans and casual Oakley drops. But this time, they’ve gone full athlete mode. The Vanguard glasses feature a sleek, unified front lens (goodbye chunky corner cameras) and pack a 12MP ultra-wide camera that shoots 3K resolution video. Translation: your sweaty hill sprints or cycling climbs can now look like cinematic training montages.
One standout feature: a programmable button that lets you trigger your own custom AI prompt via the Meta AI app. Think “start playlist,” “record my lap,” or even “check my pace” — without fiddling with your phone mid-run. All the buttons are tucked underneath the frame too, so helmets fit snug without interference.
Battery life? Solid. You get up to nine hours of casual use or six hours of nonstop music. The charging case adds another 36 hours, and you can juice the glasses to 50% in just 20 minutes. Marathoners, rejoice — your glasses won’t quit before you do.
Meta also flexed hard on the audio. These glasses come with open-ear speakers that are six decibels louder than previous Oakley smart glasses — their most powerful yet. A five-microphone array cuts down wind noise, so you won’t sound like you’re calling from inside a tornado when using Meta AI or hopping on a call. Plus, with an IP67 water and dust resistance rating, they’re the toughest Meta glasses yet — built to survive sweat, rain, and dusty trail rides.
But the real kicker is the integrations. These glasses sync with Garmin smartwatches to pull up live stats (heart rate, pace, cadence, etc.), and they also play nice with Strava, letting you overlay your performance metrics onto photos and videos. Imagine dropping a cycling reel where your average speed is literally floating above your head — instant bragging rights.
The Vanguard comes in four sporty frame/lens combos (from classic black to sleek sapphire), and global availability is wide — U.S., Canada, most of Europe, plus rollouts in Mexico, India, Brazil, and the UAE later this year.
And because Meta loves options, they also revealed a new Ray-Ban Meta 2 (double the battery, 3K Ultra HD video) and another Ray-Ban collab with a built-in display + wristband control. In other words, Meta is doubling down on wearables — not just for looking stylish, but for making tech a literal extension of your workouts, routines, and lifestyle.
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