Gucci frames Google’s next glasses push

Google is preparing to take its Android XR eyewear effort into luxury fashion through a partnership with Gucci, with Kering chief executive Luca de Meo saying the smart glasses are expected by 2027 rather than this year. The plan gives Google a high-end brand partner as it tries to turn experimental smart eyewear into something consumers will actually wear in public.

The confirmation matters because it moves the story beyond speculation. Google has already said Android XR glasses are central to its next computing push and that it is working with eyewear partners to make products people would want to wear all day. At Google I/O, the company showed glasses designed to work with Gemini, using cameras, microphones and speakers, and in some versions an in-lens display for private prompts such as translations, navigation and messages. Google named Gentle Monster and Warby Parker as initial partners and said it looked forward to working with more partners, including Kering Eyewear.

De Meo’s comments now put a clearer commercial target on that broader strategy. Reuters reported from Florence that Kering aims to launch AI-powered smart glasses under the Gucci brand in collaboration with Google by 2027. That would place the product inside Kering’s wider attempt to revive Gucci, broaden earnings beyond fashion cycles and lean harder into eyewear and jewellery, two categories management sees as more stable engines of growth. Kering’s own 2025 financial document had already disclosed that Kering Eyewear had formed a partnership with Google to develop smart glasses, but without the same level of timing detail now on offer.

For Google, the move also reflects a lesson learned from the wearables market: hardware alone is not enough if the product looks awkward or overly technical. The company’s earlier Google Glass project never broke into the mainstream. Its Android XR pitch is different, emphasising usefulness, discretion and style, with glasses that work alongside a phone rather than trying to replace it. Google has described two broad categories in development: screen-free AI glasses for voice-led assistance and display glasses that can show turn-by-turn directions, language captions and other contextual information inside the lens. It said the first glasses in this wider effort would arrive next year, suggesting Gucci’s version will probably come later than the first wave rather than lead it.

That timing also shows how crowded the field is becoming. Meta and EssilorLuxottica have built the clearest early lead with Ray-Ban smart glasses, a product line that has pushed the category closer to the mainstream and given rivals a benchmark for both design and scale. Reuters has reported strong demand, production expansion and more than 2 million pairs sold since the September 2023 launch, while Meta has also introduced newer prescription-oriented models. Snap is still in the race as well, saying its next Specs will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR platform and launch later this year. Against that backdrop, Google’s alignment with Gucci is less a novelty than a competitive necessity.

Gucci’s involvement gives the project a different commercial angle from the Ray-Ban partnership that has defined Meta’s push. Ray-Ban sits in the premium mass market; Gucci occupies a more rarefied luxury tier, where brand identity, materials and fashion credibility can matter as much as technical capability. That may help Google reach image-conscious buyers who would ignore a plainly branded tech device, but it also raises the stakes on execution. Consumers paying Gucci-level prices will expect the glasses to function reliably, look distinctive and avoid the clumsy trade-offs that have hurt earlier generations of wearable hardware.

The partnership arrives as Kering is trying to reassure investors that Gucci can regain momentum after a difficult stretch. Reuters reported that de Meo used a long investor presentation in Florence to promise a sharper store network, stronger margins, lower inventory and a return to Gucci’s core design codes. Folding Google-powered eyewear into that recovery plan suggests Kering sees technology not as a side project but as part of a broader attempt to reposition the brand for a more fragmented luxury market.

Whether smart glasses become a lasting consumer category will depend on more than celebrity labels and AI assistants. Privacy concerns remain alive, particularly as cameras and ambient computing become more socially visible. Google has said it is gathering feedback from trusted testers to ensure Android XR products are helpful and respectful of privacy, while critics of rival devices have already warned that wearable AI could move faster than public comfort. That tension will shadow every launch in the sector, including any Gucci model.