Your friend's preference is reasonable to me. I prefer to have 0 stop at the top, it just seems much easier to read more quickly. Reading a clock wouldn't be as easy (at a glance) if a different number was placed at the top.
After a friend borrowed a dial caliper, it didn't read zero at the top, but it turned out to be a slight burr at the tip of one of the jaws, from rough handling, possibly where it hit if it was dropped.
If the bezel can be removed, the easiest way would probably be to gently pull the pointer off and reset it at zero.
I did a reset the hard way a number of years ago, and can't remember the details now, but it took more than a few tries. I think I removed the stop at the end, and ran the entire dial assembly off the scale, then put it back on to see where the pointer stopped when closed. I think I eventually removed the screws from the rack, and moved the rack to get the desired position. If I hadn't approached it as a challenge, it wouldn't have been worth the trouble.
It still works fine now, but I use a digital more frequently.