Presentation of Oriorwaith J Sarnowski

My name is Jan Sarnowski, as well as making watches, I teach maths to secondary school students in Wales. Watches have been part of my life since my early teens, whether it it has been through collecting, researching or eventually restoring and building watches for my own collection. It has always been a dream of mine to own a watch company. With the birth of my daughter in 2022, it inspired me to create my own watch and this is what created Oriorwaith J. Sarnowski with the launch of my first watch, Y Derwydd in March 2024.

History of Oriorwaith J Sarnowski

Founded in 2024

Oriorwaith J. Sarnowski launched in January 2024 after over a year of prototyping Y Derwydd. It is a family owned watchmaking business, with my wife helping me behind the scenes with QC as well as with the packing of every watch and general logistics. When creating my first timepiece, I wanted the watch to be a modern interpretation of a design most popular in the 18th and 19th centuries - where pocket watches bore minimalist, enamel dials which were carefully hand made by true craftsmen. I thought that using a similar, hand calligraphed design on a dial made out of natural gemstone could produce something distinctive, special and most importantly, different. The sister watch, Derwydd Y Nos, launched in November 2024 with a Lapis Lazuli version of the same watch.