Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) is a prestigious British consumer and professional loudspeaker and headphone manufacturer founded in 1966 in Worthing, West Sussex, by John Bowers and Roy Wilkins after meeting in the Royal Corps of Signals during WWII. The breakthrough came when wealthy opera singer Miss Knight left Bowers £10,000 in her 1966 will, enabling full-time speaker development. B&W's first commercial speaker, the 1967 P1, used EMI woofers and Celestion tweeters, leading to the revolutionary 1993 'Nautilus' flagship with tapered tube design that remains their premium product. The company has maintained its commitment to innovation for over 50 years, partnering with Abbey Road Studios, Aston Martin, BMW, McLaren, and Volvo. Currently owned by Masimo (acquired via Sound United in 2020), with May 2025 plans to sell to Samsung's Harman International for $350 million, B&W continues manufacturing speakers, wireless audio systems, headphones, and soundbars from their Netherlands headquarters while preserving John Bowers' original culture and excellence standards.