Most clock & watch companies use the time 10:10 in their promotional material, and the reason for that is aesthetics.
Most brand names on watches/clocks are centred on the upper half of the watch (around 12).
When the hour hand is positioned at 10 and the minute hand is positioned at 2, it looks symmetrical and creates a nice frame for the brand name.
Now, Apple devices (including the watch) have digital displays, so 10:10 or any other time doesn’t contribute to or take away from the aesthetics.
Still, Apple uses 9:41 in all the promotional material for iPhones and 10:09 for Apple watches.
The time 9:41 has been in use since the 2007 iPhone launch when the team designed Steve Jobs’ presentation so that the product reveal happened around 40 minutes into the presentation.
The team wanted the time on the device, which was to be displayed on the big screen, to be close to the actual time on the audience’s watches.
The presentation was to start at 9:00, and the team didn’t want a situation where the real-time was 9:42, and the picture of the iPhone on the big screen displayed 9:40, as that would have meant being late.
So, they added a buffer of 2 minutes and took pictures with the time set at 9:42.
But as Steve Jobs practised this presentation, the unveil consistently happened at 41 minutes, so the team took a new set of pictures with 9:41.
Then, in the actual presentation at Macworld in 2007, the time 9:41 perfectly worked as it appeared on the big screen at 9:41.
While Apple could have continued to display 9:41 for Apple watches or used the launch time of the first Apple Watch as the display time, it chose 10:09.
While there is no recorded reason for this, it is believed that Apple set this time to establish itself within the watch-making tradition and to establish that it is taking the watch very seriously and not just as a fancy extension to iPhones.
Some also say that by using 10:09, Apple is making a statement of being slightly ahead of the curve, but this doesn’t seem valid, as 10:09 would mean being late (by the logic explained in point 8 above).
Also, while 10:10 generalises the default time, different brands already use different variations: e.g., Timex uses 10:09:36, and Rolex uses 10:10:31.
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