This pair of spectacles is about the irony of quantum mechanics. The first person to observe and record a quantum-mechanical effect was Max Planck, around the turn of the century. He was observing the behavior of radiation, and he noticed that the properties of light could be described by representing radiation with discrete quanta (photons). He made a direct measurement of one the of the most significant quantum-mechanical constants, which we now call "h" (the h-bar you see supporting the spectacles).

One of the ideas of quantum mechanics is that nothing assumes a known state until it is observed. Although Planck did not want to believe radiation is discrete, he was the first to observe such behavior, and he was the first to establish the properties of quantum-mechanical behavior we see today. If he had observed a different value for h-bar, a larger value, then we would be in a different state. These spectacles are a model of the spectacles Planck wore, except that the value of h-bar has been increased slightly.