Oakley Square Wire and Square Wire 2.0: Versions and What to Check
Oakley Square Wire (June 1996) and Square Wire 2.0 (May 2000), dated from Oakley's filings: versions, colourways and what to check before buying one.
Contents
Model file
Dates and list prices as the maker's own documents print them. Everything else on this page comes from our listings.
Ten Square Wires have passed through this studio. Everything here comes from pieces we have had in hand.
What it is
A thin square wire frame, sold in a first version and a 2.0. Six of the ten we have handled were marked Gen 2 or 2.0; the other four carried no generation in the listing.
Oakley dates the Square Wire to June 1996 and the Square Wire 2.0 to May 2000, and its list for 2000 already marks the original as discontinued1. Both belong to the family Oakley calls Wires, whose frames it describes as a lightweight alloy of five metallic compounds1. «Gen 2» in a listing usually means the 2.0.
The years in our listings run from 1996 to 2006: 1996, 1999, 2005 and 2006 are all represented.
Colourways we have actually had
Frames
- Silver
- Pewter
- Polished
- Black
Lenses
- Fire Iridium
- Black Iridium
- Grey Iridium
- Ice Iridium
- Blue Iridium
- G30 Black Iridium
Two of the pairs we have had were the same 1996 Silver / Fire Iridium, and the second was listed as a separate style with a lighter lens. Two pairs of the same model and year are not a duplicate listing and not the same piece: in a single-unit archive it just means two of them came through.
Pieces we have had
These are the ten Square Wires that have passed through the studio, grouped by the generation written in each listing. Sold pieces stay here as a record; each photograph links to its original listing.
Gen 2 / 2.0
Generation not marked
Sizing
The Square Wire is a classic wire frame, so it does carry the lens–bridge–temple notation on the inside of the temple. We do not publish it yet because we have not read it off a piece ourselves. Ask us at 16.88studiocontact@gmail.com about a specific pair and we will read it and photograph it.
What to check before you buy one
- Version. 1.0 and 2.0 are different frames. Six of ten pairs stated it; four did not, and on those you should ask.
- The wire. A thin frame bends. We check that it sits square and that the temples hold tension, and we say so.
- Lens tint under daylight. Grey Iridium and Black Iridium look alike in a photograph and nothing alike on the face.
- Temple engraving. Model and reference, inside the temple, as on every Oakley of the period.
In the studio now
Related pieces listed today. Each one leaves this list the moment it sells.
Looking for one
Square Wires come through here a few times a year. Whatever is available is in the eyewear section of the shop; if it is not there, tell us the finish and lens you want and we will look for it. That is what Sourcing is.
Sources
- Oakley, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2000, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Item 1, Business: eyewear products table (date introduced, US suggested retail price), eyewear and apparel text; Item 7. www.sec.gov Consulted 30 Sep 2026.
Counts, colourways and the years in our listings come from pieces photographed in hand in the studio. Dates of introduction come only from the sources above.
Written in Barcelona at 16.88studio, an archive and resale project working with technical and branded sportswear from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Corrections with a source are welcome: write to us.