The History of Epson & Epson Printers

Epson has been around over one hundred years, beginningtheir success with watch-making that led to the first quartz watch. Over time,the company has evolved into the printer manufacturer of today.

In 1881, K. Hattori & Company was established as atrading company for clocks and watches. From this came the Seiko Group whichhad Suwa Seikosha as a part of it is what Seiko Epson evolved from over time.

However, Seiko Epson, as they were called in the 1960’s, wasnot quite in the printer market as of yet, developing crystal chronometers andtimers for the timekeeping to be done at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.The first printer mechanism was soon to follow, called the EP-101. Soon tofollow was the invention of the first quartz watch in 1969.

Since then, Epson has been on the forefront of manytechnological breakthroughs including the first digital wristwatch. But in1975, Epson started to create office equipment to meet the demands of theAmerican electronics market. As the personal computer rose in popularity in thelate 70’s, the MX-80 was released by Epson to provide a reliable dot matrixprinter at a price that was reasonable in comparison to the computers at thetime. Quickly becoming the industry standard, Epson had about 60% of the dotmatrix printer market because of this one product alone according to theofficial Epsonwebsite.

With the notebook computer in 1982 and the color inkjetprinter for your desktop in 1994—the illustrious Epson Stylus Color—Epson hasnever let down and never backed off of the marketplace. Epson Americanow leads the way for digital imaging products in the Americas,offering ink jet printers, dot matrix printers, scanners, projectors and more.They also are a part of the EPA, and support the Energy Star Program since itbegan in 1993.