The first watch featuring computer functions

I'm a watch nerd, but generally I'm only interested in mechanicals. Spring drive is the first quartz-driven movement I'm actually interested in.

If I won the lotto tomorrow, I'd buy a Grand Seiko with it.

It has been commonplace for analogue watches to be set to 10:10 or more often 1:40 so that the hands are pleasingly symmetrical and mostly frame the logo. I think this is just a carry over from that. The figures you use mention probably create that arrangement more accurately, though of course completely unnecessarily!

> I think they were brought up by Epson.

Checked that at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiko, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiko_Group and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson, but got away confused.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiko_Group seems to have the best succinct description (but reading the others, it does leave out info):

“Seiko Group (セイコー・グループ, Seikō Gurūpu) is a corporate group composed of Seiko Group Corporation and its subsidiaries and affiliates. It used to be recognized as a corporate group consisting of three core companies Seiko Holdings Corp. (Seiko; f/k/a K. Hattori & Co., Hattori Seiko), Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII; f/k/a Daini Seikosha, Seiko Instruments & Electronics), and Seiko Epson Corp (Epson; f/k/a Suwa Seikosha). The three companies were linked by a common thread of timepiece technology. Although Epson still develops and manufactures wristwatches for the Seiko Group, Epson and its subsidiaries are not considered part of the group”

I want to be a civil as I can here, but you managed to post 3 sentences that are all completely wrong.

1. Seiko is huge. If you are snoozing on them, that's on you, not them. They have a HUGE presence in watches, from low-end affordable pieces to their gorgeous and expensive high-end watches under the Grand Seiko name. Jewelry stores where I live usually devote at least one of their window displays to Seiko (as you see with Rolex and Tag, for example).

2. Seiko is not owned by Epson. Epson do produce some of Seiko's watches, but they're not part of the company. Seiko are a public company primarily controlled, still, by the Hattori family.

3. In the 1980s Seiko was nowhere nearly as prestigious (or expensive) as Rolex or any other high-end Swiss maker. Then as now, the nicer watches were definitely nice watches, but they weren't jewelry like a Rolex or an Omega. The rise of Grand Seiko has leveled that playing field quite a bit, though. Today, at least among watch people, a spring-drive GS would be as fawned over as a Submariner or Explorer.

(edit: I left extraneous text while writing the post. That's now removed.)

> In the 1980s, having a Seiko digital, was like having a Rolex

Mr Bond sported a digital Seiko watch at the time.

I recall on a television program demonstrating counterfeit goods, they showed a watch with the "SETKO" imprint

Digital watches were certainly the in thing back then, but they didn't quite have the cachet of an expensive Rolex or TagHeuer. I had a cheaper end digital watch which seemed to take forever to set, although it did have a stop watch and possibly an alarm on it.

https://epson.com/company-history

It started with the watch making, EPSON was the spin off technology, developed for the 1964 Olympics, when printers were needed, along with precision timekeeping.

The watch engineering meant that they had the core competencies for making awesome printers.

The watch making continues, however, SEIKO-EPSON have diversified and got into specialist markets, up the value chain. Clearly they have had to survive quite a few company-threatening events over the years, ranging from the Plaza Accord where the Yen got zapped, to the LCD screen, which made printed paper somewhat obsolete.

Up the value chain can mean considerable benefits, EPSON printers are notable for this, where they have a lot of the point of sale market, where printers get to be used all day, with considerably more service/warranty money to be made, compared to that home printer that has printed out 'one form, once, in the last five years'.

https://repebble.com/