If you have looked carefully, the clock has traditionally been always set to 9:42 in Apple advertisements.
You could see it across various commercials, print ads, and even on
Apple's website. The explanation is simple: That's the time in the
morning that Steve Jobs announced the very first iPhone in 2007. Around
42 minutes into his keynote address he said "Today Apple is going to
reinvent the phone." The picture of the phone was carefully scheduled to
pop up at that moment. "We design the keynotes so that the big reveal
of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation", Apple's
Scott Forstall confirms.
The time was even slightly tweaked in 2010, when the very first iPad was released, so that when it was revealed, it displayed a different time: 9:41. - Source
The time was even slightly tweaked in 2010, when the very first iPad was released, so that when it was revealed, it displayed a different time: 9:41. - Source