Instruments of Time

Hello Pete and Ross, could you please begin by brie"y introducing yourselves and how you became interested in watch designing or making?

Pete and Ross: We are the co-founders, Product and Creative Directors (respectively) of Instrmnt Applied Design, which is an industrial product design studio based in Glasgow, Scotland. We are known primarily for designing and producing utilitarian watches made with Swiss and German components, but actually work on a fairly wide range of products across many categories; bikes, furniture, umbrellas, clocks, and many more. Whatever design challenge we feel we can make an impact on when a brief comes across our desks.

We have both had a keen interest in watches since we were kids, however had no formal training in horology before we started I—AD. In fact, the studio was not necessarily launched to make watches - it just so happened that the first product we designed together was a watch (specifically made for ourselves) and it quite quickly became successful with others wanting to purchase it. We learned the majority of our knowledge of horology in an intensive first year of production with a great deal of help from manufacturers, many of whom we are still working with to this day. ‘Learning by doing’ can be tough but undoubtedly works as a method when you already have an underlying passion for something.

How did you two cross paths and what prompted you to start Instrmnt Applied Design (I– AD) together?

P & R: We met studying at the university; the graphic and product-based courses shared a studio. I think very quickly at design school you realize who has a similar aesthetic, ethos, and approach to what they perceive to be good design. We both had a close design style and often worked in collaboration, however it was not until around a year after graduation that we got together and started discussing running a studio. Having a broad range of design skills across graphic and product design has served us well, as we are not just creating products on behalf of others: these are I— AD goods that need to be marketed and sold as such.