This study presents the analysis and design of a novel quasi-zero-stiffness (QZS) based vibration sensor system for measuring absolute displacement of vibrating platforms/objects. The sensor system is constructed by using positive and negative-stiffness springs, which makes it possible to achieve an equivalent QZS and consequently to create a broadband vibration-free point for absolute displacement measurement in vibrating platforms. Theoretic analysis is conducted for the analysis and design of the influence of structure parameters on system measurement performance. A prototype is designed which can avoid the drawback of instability in existing QZS systems with negative stiffness, and the corresponding data-processing software is developed to fulfill time domain and frequency domain measurements simultaneously. Both simulation and experiment results verify the effectiveness of this novel sensor system.