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Sierra Optical history
Sierra Optical company history timeline
The Essilor Group is the result of a unique human, industrial and business venture that started as an artisanal spectacle maker, established in Paris in 1849, and then evolved into a leader in its sector with a worldwide presence.
1849 From a workers’ cooperative to an expanding company
1899 A major player in optical lenses
1927 High precision lenses
Ambitious entrepreneur George Lissac opens a first optical store in Paris and goes on to set up the Lissac Brothers company in 1931.
In 1938, he creates the revolutionary concept of an optical department store on rue de Rivoli, Paris, where customers can have a free eye test.
1938 The first optics department store
Sierra began in 1947 in a California Quonset hut building.
Bernard Maitenaz, a young engineer who joined SL in 1948, develops and patents a revolutionary concept for a lens with progressively stronger power that enables a more natural correction of presbyopia compared to bi-focal lenses invented in the 18th century by Benjamin Franklin.
1949 Amor, the ‘must-have’ from Lissac
1959 Varilux® revolution Orma 1000, first organic lens
In 1969, Bob Hayden joined Sierra as Manager of Operations for The Leisure Group, who at the time was Sierra’s parent company.
1972 Essilor, a merger of two leading names
1975 Essilor listed on the stock market
In 1979, Los Angeles computer programmer Ken Williams bought an Apple for Christmas.
In 1979 Roberta Williams after playing a text-only adventure game, Colossal Cave, decided she could do better.
Roberta's husband, Ken a programmer, implemented her black and white graphic designs and on May 5, 1980, after months of hard-work, they finally release their first computer game - an adventure called Mystery House.
The company, first known as On-Line Systems, moved in 1980 to Oakhurst, California, at the foot of the Sierra Mountains, and was renamed Sierra On-Line.
1980: Sierra On-Line begins operating in Oakhurst, California.
The founders' experience dates back to the earliest commercially-available, cooled InSb cameras developed in the late 1980's.
At the urging of investors, in 1983 the company began producing cartridges for the early Atari video game machines, which were about to fall out of fashion.
With its release in the summer of 1984, King's Quest: Quest for the Crown becomes the first animated, three dimensional "interactive cartoon," a game in which the player would take on the persona of Sir Graham, a knight in the land of Daventry.
The "classic" Sierra logo was created sometime between 1984 and 85, about the same time Sierra moved into their famous Redwood building.
By 1985, the Tandy Corporation introduced the Tandy 1000, an MS-DOS (and PCjr) compatible.
1986 Essilor of America
1987: A partnership with IBM is formed and King's Quest is developed.
In 1989, the company started its own games-only network, another first, which fared poorly out of the gate in spite of a $1 million investment.
Mixed-Up Mother Goose, touted as the first true PC multimedia game, was released in 1990.
1990: The company acquires Dynamix.
Bright Star Technologies, an educational software firm founded by programmer Elon Gasper, was added in 1992 just as the educational software market was becoming the fastest-growing segment of the software industry.
1992 Crizal®… tried and tested transparency
The ImagiNation Network, originally known as the Sierra Network, formed an alliance with Prodigy in 1993, and added CUC International's Shopper's Advantage on-line shopping service.
The timing was perfect for Sierra: according to Software Publishers of America, annual home educational software sales rose from $146 million to $243 million in 1993.
1993 Varilux Comfort®, for optimal comfort
In 1994, Roberta Williams estimated that women made up 15 percent (growing 2 percent yearly) of Sierra On-Line's customers.
Although the network reached 45,000 subscribers, high development costs consumed its increasing revenues ($20 million in 1994). The company's poor performance at this time prompted layoffs of 60 employees.
Sierra breezed into the kitchen with its 1995 purchase of Arion Software's MasterCook series.
After months of delays, Phantasmagoria finally was released in 1995.
Founded in 1995, Sierra-Olympic Technologies is a small independent company that has made a big impact over the years.
The deal, announced in February 1996, gave Sierra access to CUC's powerful marketing abilities and its outreach of more than 40 million customers.
Sierra later agreed to produce a version of its Red Baron game, to be released in 1996, for Nintendo's cartridge-based video game system.
These acquisitions also resulted in great financial success, which was the incentive for CUC's offer to buy Sierra in 1996, along with Blizzard, Davidson, Gryphon Software and Knowledge Adventure.
In April 1997, the firm purchased Berkeley Systems, a publisher known for its You Don't Know Jack series, its After Dark screen saver series, and the bezerk network.
1997: The company acquires Berkeley Systems and Books That Work.
1997 was also the year when CUC joined with HFS and became Cendant.
In January 1999, Cendant Software became Havas Interactive and operated as worldwide leader of interactive content with Sierra among its holdings.
When Starsiege, a science fiction combat game, became available in March 1999, an Internet interface was made available for game players where they could join a game in progress, talk to other players, read information on the game, and get tips and hints for playing the game.
The company ended 1999 by releasing three new home and garden software products and MasterCook Food & Wine, a venture with Food & Wine magazine.
Sierra also launched its newest version of Hoyle Casino, a CD-ROM game that was named the best-selling casino game of 1999 by PC Data.
In May 2000, Sierra teamed up with Hallmark Cards Inc. to create Hallmark Card Studio, a personal expression software package.
The Havas name disappeared at a business alliance in the summer of 2000 between Vivendi, Seagram and Canal+ to form Vivendi Universal, when it was renamed Vivendi Universal Publishing.
New leadership at Sierra was named in May 2001 and consisted of Thomas Hernquist as president and CEO, and Michael Ryder as COO and senior vice-president of product development.
On 14 August, 2001, Sierra closed Dynamix.
Under the leadership of Havas International, which was renamed Vivendi Universal Publishing early in 2001, Sierra was poised to remain a leader in software entertainment for years to come.
By the end of 2001, Sierra On-Line changed its logo - adding the Half-Dome . Just a few months later it changed its name to "Sierra Entertainment". (Sixth logo)
2003 Varilux® Ipseo®, personalized progressive lenses
2006 Varilux® Physio®, high-resolution vision
2007 A Foundation for social action
2008 Scientific partnership with Institut de la Vision Equipping professionals
2009 Major player in reading glasses Innovation: a driver of growth First steps into e-commerce
In 2010, the company was acquired by Hood Technology Corporation of Hood River, OR.
2011 Essilor launches the construction of its Center for Innovation and Technology (CIT) Europe Optifog®, anti-fogging technology Reading glasses: a source of growth
2012 Varilux S Series™: a high-end progressive lens Crizal® UV and E-SPF®: for better UV protection
An engineer by trade and an avid hunter, Bob led Sierra through years of tremendous growth while greatly expanding Sierra’s product offering before his retirement in 2012.
2013 Essilor signs a partnership with the University of Wenzhou Crizal® Prevencia®: protecting the eyes from harmful blue-violet light A Group driven by a mission
Crizal® Prevencia® was voted one of Canada’s products of the year in 2014.
2014 Transitions™ joins the Essilor Group Essilor grows presence in sunwear and online A new visual identity
The partnership celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2015.
2017 Essilor and Luxottica Varilux® X series™ Essilor and FIA partnership
2020 Crizal® ROCK™ Coating
Essilor launched the Stellest™ lens, a new generation of ophthalmic lenses to combat the progression of myopia among children, in 2020.
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