High end non-apple earbuds not working properly with iPhone7

I just bought the new iPhone 7 and discovered that my Bowers & Wilkins ear buds don't seem to be compatible with my new phone. The sound works great, but the mic and controls stop working after pausing for longer then a few minutes. I thought it was a headphone issue so I got them replaced but still having the same issue. So for example I plug in my headphones into the adapter (provided by apple), start my music app, press play on the phone and beautiful high definition sounds comes out. I can then press pause on the mic control, press it again to play and it works fine as do the volume adjusters. However, if I press pause and wait a few minutes, the remote control on the speaker cord does not work at all. The sound still works if I touch 'play' and 'pause' on the screen. Once I unplug the headphone jack and plug back in, the remote control works again, until I pause it for a longer period. It seems to stop responding when in pause mode and screen asleep. I disabled the screen lock to see what happens. Now in pause mode for over five minutes, the remote works but the screen stays on! So at this point I turned off the screen (in pause mode). Two minutes later, remote mic and controls don't work. So definitely related to iPhone screen going to sleep. Does anyone else have this problem or solution. This problem does not occur on my friend's iPhone 6.