Bentley Reinvents Its Customer Magazine as a Collectable Tribute to W.O. Bentley

After 25 years as Bentley Magazine, the British marque's customer publication has been reborn as W.O. Magazine, a tactile, beautifully produced celebration of founder Walter Owen Bentley and, more importantly, the people whose passion has shaped the marque for more than a century.

Bentley is giving one of the oldest forms of brand communication an unexpectedly luxurious second life. The Crewe marque has relaunched its long running customer publication as W.O. Magazine, named after company founder Walter Owen Bentley, with a dramatically more editorial and collectable approach. The first issue under the new identity launched in London on August 28, 2026.

It is an interesting move at a time when most luxury brands are racing towards increasingly transient digital content. Bentley is moving in the opposite direction, towards something physical, tactile and designed to be kept. And that may be precisely the point, especially for a marque whose journey from motorsport origins into modern luxury has always leaned on story as much as engineering.

From Bentley Magazine to W.O.

Bentley's customer magazine first appeared in 2001 and has existed in various forms for the past 25 years. The new incarnation abandons the straightforward Bentley Magazine title for something considerably more personal.

W.O. references Walter Owen Bentley, who founded Bentley Motors in 1919 with a famously simple ambition, to create a fast car, a good car and the best in its class. But the magazine is not conceived simply as a retrospective on its founder. Its larger subject is the human universe around Bentley.

Owners, engineers, craftspeople, racers, creatives and enthusiasts become the protagonists, continuing a tradition that stretches back to the famous Bentley Boys and pioneering Bentley Girls of the 1920s and 1930s. Bentley itself has long described these communities as integral to the development of the marque. Rather than telling readers repeatedly how extraordinary Bentley cars are, the publication asks a more interesting question: who are the extraordinary people drawn to them, a question that echoes why storytelling matters so much for a luxury brand in the first place.

Billy Zane and His 1990 Bentley Turbo R

The relaunch's cover star is actor and filmmaker Billy Zane, who also contributes to the magazine and discusses his enthusiasm for automobiles and his own 1990 Bentley Turbo R.

The wider issue travels considerably further. Stories move from Tokyo to the Italian lakes, exploring the careers, obsessions and experiences of people connected with the marque. It combines significant moments from Bentley history with contemporary owners, current innovations and the craftspeople responsible for building its cars, including engineering statements as bold as the question of whether the Continental GT Mulliner W12 is the most powerful Bentley ever built.

Contributors include photographer Greg Williams, Kate Peck, Kasper Garnell and Peter Grunert, alongside Bentley Head of Art Direction Jeffrey Lee. The editorial shift is subtle but smart. Luxury brands have traditionally treated customer magazines as beautifully produced catalogues, much like the format explored in a roundup of the best luxury magazines from around the world. Bentley appears to be pushing W.O. closer to an independent luxury or culture publication in which the product exists naturally within a much broader world.

A Magazine Made Like a Luxury Object

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of W.O. Magazine is its physical production. Bentley says the intention was to create something with the permanence of a collectable publication, closer to a coffee table book than disposable corporate literature.

Multiple paper stocks are used throughout. Photography is given substantial space. Typography is deliberately bold but restrained, while the layout uses generous white space rather than filling every page with product messaging. Even Bentley's signature green was specially colour matched for print. A textured exterior wrap, white foil details and spot UV finishing further turn the publication itself into a small expression of the craftsmanship Bentley wants associated with its automobiles.

That makes W.O. interesting beyond Bentley. Luxury brands spend extraordinary amounts creating physical products designed to provide sensory pleasure, yet much of their marketing is now consumed for seconds on identical glass smartphone screens. Bentley has effectively decided that the medium should feel luxurious too, an idea not unlike the reasoning behind Rolls-Royce's decision to hand build only three coachbuilt Boat Tails, where the object itself is treated as inseparable from the story it tells.

Bentley Turns a Mayfair Cafe Into a Newsagent

The launch has also been given a particularly British theatrical flourish. Bentley has transformed Automat on Mount Street in Mayfair into the Bentley Newsagent for one week, running from August 28 to September 4.

The choice of Mount Street is not arbitrary. A photograph held in Bentley's Heritage Collection shows four Bentley racing cars and their drivers assembled there in 1929, shortly before that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bentley subsequently achieved a remarkable 1-2-3-4 finish at Le Mans, led by Woolf Barnato and Tim Birkin's Speed Six.

More than a century later, Bentley is effectively using that same neighbourhood to connect the contemporary brand with the mythology that created it. Visitors to the temporary Bentley Newsagent can obtain a limited edition copy of W.O. Magazine with the purchase of a hot or cold drink, subject to availability. Copies will subsequently be distributed directly to Bentley customers.

The Bigger Luxury Lesson

There is a broader branding idea here that may prove more important than the magazine itself. The most enduring luxury houses increasingly understand that their greatest asset is not simply product. It is culture.

Ferrari has racing mythology, a legend covered at length in the story of how Ferrari drove itself into automotive history. Hermes has equestrianism and craftsmanship, threads that run through the house's own carefully guarded brand story. Rolex has exploration and achievement, a narrative built up across the brand story behind the ultimate luxury timepiece. Bentley has an unusually rich constellation of engineering, racing, craftsmanship and the eccentric personalities who have surrounded the company since W.O.'s era.

W.O. Magazine gives Bentley somewhere to continuously document that culture. It also transforms customers from targets of marketing into characters within the brand narrative. That is far more powerful than another glossy brochure, and notably more permanent than a one off gesture such as Bentley's earlier single drop entry into the NFT market, which by its nature lived only on a screen.

Bentley was founded by W.O. Bentley in 1919, but its mythology was built equally by the racers, engineers, adventurers and owners who gathered around him. More than a century later, Bentley appears to have understood that those human stories may be among the most valuable pieces of intellectual property the marque possesses. And in an era dominated by disappearing social posts and endlessly refreshing feeds, creating something beautiful enough that a customer might actually keep it on a table for years feels surprisingly radical.

What This Means for Bentley Owners and Collectors in India

Bentley has built a meaningful following among Indian collectors in recent years, a trend visible since the marque's Bentayga SUV launch priced at several crore in India and reinforced by record global sales figures the brand posted in 2021. For this growing base of Indian owners, W.O. Magazine offers something that goes beyond a typical dealership mailer: a piece of collectable print culture likely to appeal to a market that already prizes provenance and craftsmanship in its watches, cars and homes alike, much as collectible mechanical pieces such as a rare Paul Newman Daytona estimated to fetch well over a million dollars demonstrate how physical objects with a story can outlast any digital equivalent. Bentley's lifestyle ambitions beyond the car itself, visible in projects such as its branded residential skyscraper development on Miami's oceanfront, suggest the marque is comfortable extending its culture well beyond the showroom, a philosophy W.O. Magazine now brings into print.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is W.O. Magazine?

W.O. Magazine is Bentley's relaunched customer publication, replacing the 25 year old Bentley Magazine with a more editorial, collectable format named after founder Walter Owen Bentley.

Who is the cover star of the first issue?

Actor and filmmaker Billy Zane appears on the cover of the relaunch issue and contributes content discussing his own 1990 Bentley Turbo R.

Where and when did W.O. Magazine launch?

The first issue launched in London on August 28, 2026, alongside a temporary Bentley Newsagent pop up on Mount Street in Mayfair running until September 4.

Why did Bentley choose Mount Street in Mayfair for the launch?

A 1929 photograph in Bentley's Heritage Collection shows four Bentley racing cars and their drivers assembled on Mount Street shortly before that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, which Bentley went on to win in a 1-2-3-4 finish.

How can readers get a copy of W.O. Magazine?

Visitors to the temporary Bentley Newsagent can obtain a limited edition copy with the purchase of a hot or cold drink, subject to availability, while copies will also be distributed directly to Bentley customers.

Pricing and sales figures referenced in this article for comparative context are drawn from previously reported industry sources and should be treated as indicative rather than current list prices.