Founders' Friday - A Conversation With Andrew from Zero West

Zero West is an independent British watch brand founded in 2016 by Graham Collins and Andrew Brabyn in Emsworth, Hampshire. The company creates limited-edition timepieces inspired by significant moments in British history, often drawing on themes from land, sea, and air such as aviation, engineering, and motorsport. Each watch is designed to connect a specific place and moment in time with distinctive typography, materials, and storytelling. Combining British design and engineering with reliable Swiss movements, Zero West focuses on craftsmanship, historical inspiration, and small-batch production, producing watches that celebrate heritage while delivering modern performance and precision.

To discover more about this unique British brand, I asked Andrew to answer the same 15 questions for this week's Founders' Friday. I hope you enjoy.

Back in the late 1980s, while studying graphic design and typography at art college, I got swept up in the Swatch craze. I started collecting and customising them, and my favourite was the “Nine to Six,” which was bold in graphics and typography. It captured everything I was passionate about at the time and showed me how playful watches could be. Although the Swatch era wasn’t a direct influence on Zero West’s design language, it sparked a lifelong fascination with dial design and the principles behind what works.

I found my way into the watch industry almost by chance. A friend, an aerospace engineer and I were avid watch collectors, always fascinated by them. One day, he shared a 3D render of a watch case he’d designed. Instead of just complimenting it, I created a dial, added a strap, and mocked up an advert. His immediate response was, “Shall we design a watch together?” When we sat down, it was clear that his technical skillset and my graphic design experience were the perfect complement. As lifelong watch enthusiasts, we spent the first three years of Zero West journey creating something we both believed in. And, as they say, the rest is history!

The turning point was when we decided to transform our online brand into a physical space. We took the opportunity during the pandemic to totally transform an old boathouse into our design studio and make it the official Zero West HQ. We fully renovated the space overlooking the water, housing not just our workshop and design studio, but also a dedicated customer suite with WW2 spitfire engine, cafe racer motorbike, it's a totally unique environment in the watch world. After lockdown visitors started coming from around the country and even from abroad to experience our watches in person, we knew we had something truly special. That physical space embodied the brand, and it was the moment we realised Zero West had evolved from an online into a real enduring brand.

When I was at art college, I had a tutor Mr Brody who ran a design company, and even though we only had him for a day each week, he took me under his wing. Maybe he saw something in me early on, but he changed how I saw design. He opened my eyes to a whole new way of working—constantly questioning every step of the process. To this day, that ethos stays with me. Whenever I approach a new design challenge, his influence is still there, shaping the way I think.

What truly surprised us was how deeply our customers wanted to understand the manufacturing journey, every design decision, every engineering challenge. We didn’t anticipate just how much interest there would be in the process itself. Because we’re uniquely placed with design and engineering in-house, we realised our role isn’t just making watches, but telling that story firsthand.

When you put a watch on for the first time and it feels so right it’s often many cues subconsciously blending together. It’s the fit, the weight, the feel of the finishing. It’s the balance of the dial, the way it sits beneath the crystal, and how the strap hugs your wrist. There’s a saying: good design is obvious; great design is transparent. When it’s right, you simply know.

A new watch design usually begins with my business partner, Graham Collins. He’ll come to me with an idea, often inspired by a moment in history and we’ll collaborate from there. He’ll sketch concepts, and once we agree on a direction, he’ll develop a 3D design often in SolidWorks. Meanwhile, I’ll work on the dial design. But it always hinges on “time and place”—a pivotal historical moment. That’s why every timepiece we create bears a latitude, longitude, and date, tying the watch back to its story. It’s a careful, multi-year process. We never rush, we only launch when it feels truly right.

Its not so much a design detail, but a manufacturing achievement, we’re incredibly proud that after two years of R&D, we now produce and print all our dials in-house. It’s something very few British brands do because it’s far harder than it looks. In our segment of the market, if it’s not perfect, it’s not right. So, we invested heavily in equipment and training. Now, we can proudly say we do it ourselves another reason we fly the flag for British engineering.

Growing without losing the very thing that makes you different, It’s easy to scale by simplifying, outsourcing, or chasing volume — but we’re built the other way round. The challenge is keeping the standard high, keeping the story honest, and controlling as many of the variables to engineer the best timepieces whilst giving the best customer service… everything is measured and still moves forward at a pace that’s sustainable, whilst maintaining the strong the relationship we have with our customers. When your design and engineering led, the product always comes first and we hope that shows. We’re not looking to be mass market.

The continued rise of independents and the creativity that comes with that, you can see it at the watch shows each year. Consumers are now more informed than ever before and looking for watches with real intent behind them, rather than mass market stereo types. I think British watchmaking is in a genuinely exciting chapter..

Audemars Piguet. They’re widely respected because it’s been genuinely design-led and technically ambitious for decades. The Royal Oak didn’t just introduce a new case shape — it helped define the modern “sport-luxury” category with bold geometry, an integrated bracelet, and finishing that made steel feel elevated. And crucially, AP hasn’t treated that as a one-hit wonder: they’ve continued to use the platform to push engineering (ultra-thin perpetual calendars, advanced acoustics in chiming watches, and the Concept line as a proving ground for new ideas).

One non-watch brand that truly inspires me is McLaren. I was fortunate enough to be invited to their headquarters and engineering facility in Woking, it’s like stepping into a James Bond Q-Branch on an epic scale. Seeing their wind tunnels, their meticulous approach to precision engineering and performance was awe-inspiring. That experience reinforced the value of pushing boundaries and holding ourselves to the highest standards.

Mechanical. For the human side of engineering — the romance, the craft, the connection. You’ve got this incredible miniature engine on your wrist: a tiny, self-contained machine doing precision work every second of the day. It’s a thing of wonder, and you can feel it, the crown action, the beat, the sense that it’s alive.

Chronograph. It’s functional, technical, and it changes the character of a watch, even when you’re not timing anything, it feels like an instrument.

Don’t chase everyone, build for your people. If you make something with real intent, the right customers find you, and they stick with you.