Kering to launch Gucci smart glasses with Google in 2027

Kering said it will launch smart glasses under the Gucci name with Google in 2027, a move that could do for AI eyewear what logo handbags did for status: make the technology feel desirable before it feels useful. The announcement came in Florence, where chief executive Luca de Meo framed the project as part of a broader effort to strengthen the group beyond shifting tastes at Gucci.

That wider reset is called ReconKering, and its message was blunt: luxury is being rebuilt around what the company described as “True Luxury, Next Luxury.” Kering said it wants to double its recurring operating margin from 11.1% in 2025 over the medium term, a target that puts pressure on every category to do more than simply look good on a runway. Eyewear and jewelry are now central to that plan. Kering created Kering Jewelry in 2026 to bring together Boucheron, Pomellato, Dodo and Qeelin, and the group has been making clear that both accessories businesses are meant to carry more weight inside the portfolio.

The numbers explain why. Kering’s eyewear and corporate segment generated about €1.6 billion in 2025, up 3% on a comparable basis, after reaching about €1.9 billion in 2024, up 24% as reported and 8% on a comparable basis. Kering Eyewear alone posted 2025 revenue of about €1.6 billion and fourth-quarter sales of €319 million. At the same time, Kering’s first-quarter 2026 revenue came in at €3.568 billion, down 6% as reported and stable on a comparable basis, underscoring why the company is leaning harder on categories that can be scaled without depending entirely on the next handbag hit.

For fashion, the appeal of Gucci smart glasses is not just that they can run AI. It is that Gucci may be the rare brand able to make a camera, microphone and screen sit comfortably on the face without looking like wearable office equipment. That is the everyday consumer hook: glasses that might answer questions, surface information and help with shopping in public, while still matching a trench coat, a sharp blazer or a clean black knit.

The competitive stakes are just as clear. Kering’s move would put Gucci and Google into direct view of EssilorLuxottica, whose Ray-Ban smart glasses with Meta already defined the early mainstream look for the category. The difference now is fashion authority. If luxury can make smart glasses feel like an accessory instead of a gadget, AI eyewear stops being a novelty and starts becoming part of the wardrobe.