The Rolex Perpetual Padellone Brings Back A Full Calendar After 73 Years For $59,000
The Rolex Perpetual Padellone brings one of the Crown’s rarest historical complications back into the spotlight. Revealed outside the brand’s traditional Watches and Wonders launch cycle, the new 39mm dress watch takes inspiration from the vintage ref. 8171 while introducing an instantaneous annual calendar, meteorite moonphase and all-new calibre 7190. Prices start at $59,000.
It also marks the first time in 73 years that Rolex has combined the day, date, month and moonphase within a single watch. The configuration last appeared in the ref. 6062, which was discontinued in 1953.
The Rolex Perpetual Padellone Revives a 1950’s Collector Favorite
The Rolex Perpetual Padellone takes its name from the ref. 8171, an early complete-calendar watch introduced around 1949. Collectors nicknamed the model “Padellone,” an Italian term loosely translating to “large frying pan,” because its approximately 38mm case appeared unusually broad during the early 1950s.
Rolex has now formally adopted that collector-given nickname for its modern interpretation. The new model measures 39mm in diameter, placing it only one millimeter above its vintage inspiration while retaining the elegant proportions expected from the brand’s dress-focused Perpetual collection.
Although the calendar arrangement and overall character recall the ref. 8171, this is not a conventional reissue. Rolex borrowed the historical identity and visual language of the vintage watch before building a substantially more advanced technical proposition underneath it for the Rolex Perpetual Padellone.
Rolex Hasn’t Offered This Calendar Combination in 73 Years
The original ref. 8171 used a traditional complete, or triple, calendar displaying the day, date and month alongside a moonphase. Its modern successor upgrades the concept with a complete annual calendar that tracks the day, date, month and phases of the moon.
Rolex developed a patented system called Haplos that allows the movement to differentiate automatically between months containing 30 and 31 days. As a result, the calendar requires only one manual correction each year, when February transitions into March.
The display also avoids the gradual changes typically associated with mechanical calendar watches. At midnight, the day, date and month advance simultaneously in a fraction of a second. Rolex filed a separate patent application covering this instantaneous calendar mechanism.
The Rolex Perpetual Padellone’s day and month appear through two apertures positioned at 12 o’clock, while a slender blue hand tipped with a crescent moon indicates the date along the outer edge of the dial.
Its Rolex Perpetual Padellone Moonphase Uses Pieces of Meteorite
The Rolex moonphase display provides the watch’s most visually distinctive detail. Positioned at 6 o’clock, the blue enamel disc completes one rotation every lunar month and depicts both the full moon and new moon using pieces of meteorite.
Rolex treats the new moon with a dark-blue PVD coating, creating contrast against the untreated meteorite used for the full moon. Pad-printed silver stars complete the display, while illustrated faces on the moons reference the playful character found on vintage Rolex calendar watches.
It is an unexpected touch from a manufacturer usually associated with restrained and highly standardized designs. More importantly, the meteorite moonphase gives the Padellone a recognizable identity beyond its historical inspiration.
Calibre 7190 Is Covered by 30 Patent Applications
Inside the Rolex Perpetual Padellone is the newly developed calibre 7190, a self-winding mechanical movement operating at a frequency of 5 Hz. The movement incorporates technology derived from calibre 7135, which Rolex introduced with the Land-Dweller in 2025.
Rolex says calibre 7190 is covered by 30 patent applications, including two innovations exclusive to the Padellone. One relates to the Haplos annual-calendar system, while another covers the instantaneous advancement of the calendar displays.
The movement also uses Rolex’s Dynapulse escapement, an energy-efficient silicon architecture resistant to strong magnetic fields, along with a Syloxi silicon hairspring. It provides approximately 66 hours of power reserve and carries the brand’s Superlative Chronometer certification.
Owners can view the calibre through a sapphire caseback, which reveals bridges decorated with Rolex Côtes de Genève and an openworked oscillating weight made from yellow gold.
The vintage inspiration may be obvious from the dial, but the 30 patent applications associated with the movement make clear that Rolex did not simply rebuild a 1950s watch.
The Rolex Perpetual Padellone Starts at $59,000
Rolex is launching the Padellone in three precious-metal configurations. The entry model pairs an 18-karat Everose gold case and textured white dial with a matte brown alligator strap for $59,000.
A 950 platinum version features Rolex’s signature ice-blue dial and a matte black alligator strap for $66,200. Sitting at the top of the range is an Everose gold model mounted on the brand’s seven-link Settimo bracelet, priced at $72,800.
Each version of the Rolex Perpetual Padellone measures 39mm in diameter, 12.2mm thick and 45.1mm from lug to lug. Water resistance is rated at 50 meters.
The platinum model arguably delivers the strongest visual package. Its ice-blue dial, blue enamel moonphase and meteorite accents immediately distinguish it from the countless rose-gold dress watches already occupying this end of the market. The Everose model fitted with the polished Settimo bracelet offers the more traditional expression, but it also carries the highest price.
Rolex could have simply revived the appearance of one of its most collectible vintage calendar watches. Instead, the Perpetual Padellone uses the ref. 8171 as a historical starting point before adding an annual calendar, instantaneous displays, meteorite moons and a movement associated with 30 patent applications.
More than seven decades after Rolex last combined these calendar functions in a single watch, the Rolex Perpetual Padellone brings them back without pretending watchmaking stopped in the 1950’s.
