Peter Dollond was born in London in 1731. His father, John Dollond, was a former silk weaver with a strong interest in Optics. John encouraged his son to share his hobby and the two men decided to open a shop selling spectacles in the Strand. The business had the name Golden Spectacles and Sea Quadrant but later changed to Dollond & Son. As well as spectacles the shop sold magnifying glasses, microscopes, telescopes, sextants and sundials.

The Dollonds began describing themselves as opticians. In doing so, they became the first opticians in England. John Dollond developed the achromatic lens for which he was granted a patent. In 1758 the Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal for this achievement and George III appointed him as his optician.

John Dollond died in 1761 and Peter replaced his father as the Royal Optician. Dollond continued to experiment with improving the quality of spectacles and in 1781 he became the first person to develop bifocal lenses. Dollond helped to make the wearing of spectacles acceptable and also influenced other trends such as the use of spy-glasses at the opera. Peter Dollond died in 1820.