23.04.25

You only sit twice

Article

A Norwegian Design Classic with a Bond License to Impress:

The 807 Chair in the Bond Universe / A Character in the Room

The year is 1967.
James Bond—played by Sean Connery—is sent to Japan on a top-secret mission. Time is running out, and world peace hangs in the balance. Through his contacts, he is led into an underground meeting room, hidden from the outside world. There awaits Tanaka, the head of the Japanese intelligence service—a man whose identity is one of the country’s most closely guarded secrets.

The room is subdued and raw, with dark concrete and a few carefully chosen elements. At the center stands a Norwegian design classic: Fredrik Kayser’s 807 armchair, produced by Vatne Møbler.

The scene has become an iconic part of the film—not just for what is said, but for how it feels. Everything in the room is selected with precision, and the chair plays its role with restrained authority. In the Bond universe, where power and elegance go hand in hand, it is no coincidence that this very chair was chosen.

The 807 was designed in 1965 - two years before the film’s release - and has since become a symbol of Norwegian furniture craftsmanship. With its precise design language and solid choice of materials, it embodies everything Fredrik Kayser stood for: aesthetic balance, functional strength, and lasting beauty. This is a chair that doesn’t shout, but carries itself with quiet confidence. It doesn’t follow trends - it outlives them.

Bond and the 807 share something in common—they are both made to last. Kayser designed furniture to withstand the test of time, both in form and function. In the intersection of design and film, we see how the chair becomes a natural part of the Bond universe’s visual language: sophisticated, discreet, but never anonymous.

Why was this particular chair chosen? The answer lies in its ability to combine simplicity with presence. In a film defined by exclusive details, technological innovations, and precision in every frame, the 807 stands firm as an expression of something genuine—a piece of furniture with soul, made to live through generations.

You Only Live Twice was partly filmed in Japan, and the aesthetic choice of furniture like the 807 armchair reflects both the era and the film’s vision. Since then, the scene has become part of the film’s design legacy—where the chair functions as more than just a backdrop: it is an icon. A character in the room.

Kayser’s 807 was designed in 1965 and carries a design philosophy rooted in durability—not just physically, but in its design language—with lines and proportions that still feel relevant nearly 60 years later. It is this timelessness that makes the chair a natural part of the Bond universe, where elegance and substance are two sides of the same coin.