Colored hydrogel contact lenses with lubricious coating thereon

A method for producing soft contact lenses, comprising the steps of:

• (1) obtaining a preformed hydrogel contact lens having a hydrogel lens body and an opaque color image printed with an ink on and/or in one of the anterior and posterior surface of the hydrogel lens body, wherein the ink comprises pigment particles, wherein the opaque color image is a cosmetic pattern, wherein the hydrogel lens body is a non-silicone hydrogel lens body which is composed of a polymer comprising at least 50% by mole of repeating units of at least one hydroxyl-containing vinylic monomer;
• (2) contacting the preformed hydrogel contact lens with a first aqueous coating solution of a polyanionic polymer at a pH of about 4.0 or less and at a coating temperature of from about 25° C. to about 80° C. to obtain a colored contact lens precursor which is the preformed hydrogel contact lens having a layer of the polyanionic polymer thereon, wherein the polyanionic polymer is one or more homo- or copolymers of acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, ethylacrylic acid, 2-acrylamidoglycolic acid, or 2-methacrylamidoglycolic acid, wherein the layer of the polyanionic polymer encloses the preformed hydrogel contact lens having the opaque color image;
• and
• (3) heating the colored contact lens precursor obtained in step (2), in a second aqueous coating solution which comprises a water-soluble and thermally-crosslinkable hydrophilic polymeric material having azetidinium groups, at a temperature of from about 60° C. to about 140° C. for at least 30 minutes to crosslink the water-soluble thermally-crosslinkable hydrophilic polymeric material and the polyanionic polymer so as to form the colored contact lens, wherein the colored contact lens has a hydrogel coating covalently attached onto the layer of the polyanionic polymer,
• wherein the colored contact lens in fully hydrated state has a friction rating of about 2 or lower after 7 cycles of manual rubbing.