17th October 2022

Bowers & Wilkins and James Bond unite to celebrate 60 years of Bond Music

Learn how Bowers & Wilkins, James Bond and Abbey Road came together to celebrate a legend with a pair of exclusive headphones and much more.

Bond, James Bond…

Every world-famous release you can think of has its own uniquely identifiable, memorable music score – but of them all, there can be few more iconic than the music that has propelled James Bond films. From Monty Norman’s signature theme through each of the iconic title songs, music has been inextricably linked with 007.

Abbey Road Studios

London’s world-famous Abbey Road Studios has more than played its part in that story: the themes for Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015) were recorded at Abbey Road Studios, using the latest, best-performing Bowers & Wilkins loudspeakers, the 800 Series Diamond, as monitors. Of course, capturing the full scale, drama and emotional impact of an orchestra is no trivial task. Rather, it requires studio spaces that have the necessary footprint and acoustic ‘scale’ to do justice to the performance, and studio engineers that have the necessary expertise to then capture, edit and record the performance to deliver the best possible outcome. It’s no surprise then that Abbey Road Studios – one of the world’s most famous recording studios and in particular, one of the very few with sufficiently large studio spaces to house a full-sized orchestra – has played a pivotal role in defining the sound of cinema today. If any major feature film struck a chord with you as you were growing up, there’s a very good chance that the score that propelled it was recorded at either Studio One or Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios – and in turn, that means there’s a very good chance that Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series loudspeakers, the studio monitors of choice in both those world-renowned studio spaces, were involved in the creation of that same music.

Celebrating 60 years of Bond music

All of which makes it even more fitting that to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the cinematic release of the very first Bond film, Dr. No (1962), Abbey Road Studios was the venue of choice for a new and very special recording event that brought together the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Abbey Road Studios engineer Simon Rhodes and, of course, Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond loudspeakers. This new and uniquely evocative recording features all 25 iconic themes from the Bond story, with brand-new arrangements and all recorded in the highest possible quality. It’s a unique, special recording.

DR. NO © 1962 Danjaq, LLC and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Uniting two icons of British Style and Performance

If you couldn’t tell already, Bowers & Wilkins has an enduring relationship with the music of Bond. It’s this deep-rooted connection that perfectly affirms our status as a partner of the James Bond film franchise, where together we will continue to celebrate the integral contribution that all of those iconic themes have made to the global cultural phenomenon that is 007.

Of course, music so memorable deserves an opportunity to be heard again, ideally with sound quality that faithfully relays the True Sound of the original performance. But what to do if you don’t have Abbey Road Studios at your beck and call? Enter the new Bowers & Wilkins Px8 007 Edition wireless headphones.

Uniting two icons of British style and performance, these high-performance headphones have been specifically created to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the James Bond film franchise. Each pair of Px8 007 Edition headphones is finished in Midnight Blue leather, celebrating the dinner jacket worn by James Bond himself in his first on-screen appearance in Dr. No As elegant and timeless as the world-famous spy himself, these special edition headphones deliver all the high-performance wireless sound synonymous with Bowers & Wilkins, coupled with all the style of 007.

007 Logo and related James Bond Indicia © 1962-2022 Danjaq, LLC and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

007 Logo and related James Bond Trademarks are trademarks of Danjaq, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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