There is described a method for characterizing an ophthalmic lens, in particular a contact lens, having a front surface and a back surface, which method comprises the steps of: immersing the ophthalmic lens in a fluid selected from the group consisting of water, lacrimal fluid, tear-like fluid, and mixtures thereof, and with the aid of a chromatic sensor system: determining a transition from the fluid to the front surface or to the back surface of the ophthalmic lens to identify the location of the front surface or back surface of the ophthalmic lens, by illuminating at least one segment of the front surface or the back surface of the ophthalmic lens with incident white light; directing light reflected from the at least one segment of the front surface or of the back surface of the ophthalmic lens to a spectrometer; determining a dominant wavelength of the reflected light, which corresponds to the transition from the fluid to the at least one segment of the front surface or the back surface of the ophthalmic lens; at the determined dominant wavelength of the reflected light measuring a reflectivity value of the least one segment of the front surface or the back surface of the ophthalmic lens; optionally repeating the afore-mentioned procedure for further segments on the front surface or the back surface of the ophthalmic lens for measuring reflectivity values of the further segments; storing each measured reflectivity value, comparing each stored measured reflectivity value with a corresponding reference reflectivity value, in particular with a corresponding reference reflectivity value of a front surface or a back surface of a reference ophthalmic lens having known material properties, and from a difference between the respective stored measured reflectivity value of the ophthalmic lens and the corresponding reference reflectivity value determining the quality of the inspected surface of the ophthalmic lens.