EP-101

The EP-101 was the first ever electronic miniprinter for printing figures and symbols and was launched by Shinshu Seiki Co., a subsidiary of Suwa Seikosha Co., Ltd, in September 1968.

It was created out of development work that Shinshu Seiki did for the Seiko Group when they became the official time-keepers for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games and needed a machine that could print out times they gathered from their time-pieces.

In 1975, Shinshu Seiki began branding printers as EPSON.

The brand name comes from the next generation version of this printer – son of EP, or EP-son.

Shinshu Seiki renamed Epson Corporation in 1982 and was merged with Suwa Seikosha to form Seiko Epson Corporation in 1985.