Miniature Digital Printer for Electronic Calculator; EP-101

The EP-101 is a printer for electronic desktop calculators that Suwa Seikosha (now Seiko Epson Corporation), a manufacturer of wristwatches, began producing and selling in September 1968, together with its subsidiary, Shinshu Seiki Company. The “flying drum” method was used to print number and symbol types on paper. The impetus for developing this machine was from the completion of the “printing timer” that printed the timing results at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Compared with calculators in the 1960s and 1970s, i.e., when only printers for large calculators were available, the EP-101 is incomparably smaller and more energy efficient; thus, it was incorporated into calculators as a printer component. Since no similar products were available, it was supplied to domestic and overseas calculator manufacturers on an Original Equipment Manufacturing basis. Owing to its popularity, its production reached a staggering level of 1.44 million units, and successors were developed successively. From 1975 onward, products manufactured by Shinshu Seiki were branded as “EPSON (= son of EP),” and EPSON became one of the top brands of printer products. In parallel with the innovation progress of the company, other Japanese manufacturers accelerated the development of printer products, thus solidifying the dominance of Japan in the global printer market.