Our story
50 years of excellence
1966: Beginnings
John Bowers begins assembling speaker systems in the workshop of his electronics shop in Worthing, South East England.
1966:
B&W Electronics founded
Following an inheritance of £10,000 from a satisfied customer, John Bowers sets up his own loudspeaker company.
1966: P1
The first Bowers & Wilkins loudspeaker. The profit from P1 allowed the company to invest in new calibration equipment.
1968: Domestic Monitors
The DM1 and DM3 were launched to bring high quality audio to more customers, at an affordable price point.
1970: DM70
With its curved cabinet, the DM70 changed the shape of loudspeaker design.
1976: DM6
The first Sir Kenneth Grange-designed speaker.
1977: DM7
DM7 liberated the tweeter from the cabinet – the originator of the Tweeter-on-Top design used in our most advanced speakers today.
1979: 801
The modern era of hi-fi begins. With all its drive units housed in dedicated enclosures, the 801 delivered unheard-of realism.
1981: Steyning Research Establishment (SRE) founded
SRE becomes the focus of Bowers & Wilkins acoustic innovation, where scientists and engineers can push speaker design to the limits.
1987: CM1
Designed by Sir Kenneth Grange, CM1 was developed through the latest advances in computer-aided design.
1987: Matrix 801
The speaker that introduced Matrix: the bracing structure that boosts driver performance by reducing cabinet vibration.
1993: Nautilus
The extraordinary result of a five-year research and development programme to re-invent the loudspeaker, the iconic Nautilus still influences our speaker designs to this day.
1995: 600 Series
The 600 Series made the advanced technologies developed for the flagship 800 Series accessible to a wider audience.
1998: Nautilus 801
This iteration of our flagship range introduced Nautilus technologies to the commercial market for the first time.
2000s: Expansion in to new categories
The decade that brought us iPods and smartphones saw us embrace the new world with the launch of the iconic Zeppelin. We also expanded into the car audio category and transformed the performance of our 800 Series with the development of the Diamond-dome tweeter.
2004: PV1
The dual-opposed drive unit arrangment and spherical Pressure Vessel cabinet of PV1 delivered a breakthrough in subwoofer performance.
2006: Signature Diamond
Launched to celebrate our 40th anniversary, Signature Diamond combined the performance of Diamond-dome tweeters with the beauty of an all-marble solid-body Tweeter-on-Top.
2007: Zeppelin
Bowers & Wilkins enters the iPod age with the iconic Zeppelin, our strikingly curvaceous, multi-award winning active speaker system.
2007: Car audio
Our partnership with Jaguar marked our first entry into the world of high-end car audio.
2010: 800 Series Diamond
The sixth incarnation of our flagship speaker series expanded the use of Diamond-dome tweeters to include every model in the range.
2010: P5
P5 was a statement of intent: beautifully crafted headphones that were a joy to wear and even better to listen to.
2015: 800 Series Diamond
The latest version of our flagship introduced a complete redesign and revolutionary new technologies, such as the Continuum™ cone.
2016: 800 D3 and P9 Signature
We marked our 50th year with the launch of two new flagships, the 800 D3 loudspeaker and P9 Signature headphones.
2016: Start of Formation Development
2016: Bowers & Wilkins begins work with EVA Automation to develop the new Formation platform, offering class-leading wireless technology.
2017: PX headphones
2017: PX, the first Bowers & Wilkins active noise cancellation headphone, launches. PI4, PX5 and PX7 continue the story in 2019.
2019: Formation Launch
2019: Formation revealed to the world, marking the latest evolution of cable-free listening, first realised by Zeppelin Air in 2011.