Rolex has added the Perpetual Padellone to its permanent collection, pairing an instantaneous annual calendar with a moonphase display, a complication combination the brand has used only once before. The Padellone joins the Perpetual line that Rolex launched in 2023 with the 1908, and it’s now part of the brand’s standard catalogue rather than a limited run.
The name nods to reference 8171, a 38mm Rolex made between 1949 and 1952, and one of only two vintage Rolex references to ever combine a full calendar with a moonphase. Italian collectors nicknamed it “Padellone”, or “big frying pan”, for its oversized case at the time. Original examples are now highly sought after, so reviving the name felt like the natural way of doing things in the era of nostalgia.
The modern Padellone measures 39mm across and 12.20mm thick, offered in 18k Everose gold or 950 platinum, and features a fluted bezel, domed sapphire crystal, and a sapphire caseback showing off the movement. Inside sits the new Calibre 7190, built on the existing 7135 base. It runs at 5Hz with a 66-hour power reserve and uses Rolex’s Dynapulse escapement, a silicon design the brand says is roughly 30% more efficient than a traditional Swiss lever escapement.
The calendar itself runs on a new “Haplos” system that tracks 30- and 31-day months automatically, advancing day, date and month together at midnight. It only needs manual correction once a year, in February.
Dial and Moonphase Detail
Buyers can choose an Intense White dial on the Everose gold model or Ice Blue on platinum. Day and month appear in apertures at 12 o’clock, while the moonphase disc is blue enamel, with the full moon rendered in meteorite and the new moon finished in blue PVD. I’m getting some hints of German watchmaking here, which is a bigger compliment than it might sound like.
A blue PVD crescent-tipped hand tracks the date around the dial’s edge, a detail that sets the display apart from a “normal” date window.
Pricing has been revealed at CHF 52,500 for the Everose gold on leather strap, CHF 64,800 for the Everose gold on the gorgeous Settimo bracelet, and CHF 59,000 for the Platinum on a leather strap. All three references are available now as part of Rolex’s permanent lineup.
For a brand always so hesitant to move, Rolex has been on a roll lately, with big strides in movement technology and interesting novelties, this included, being significant precisely because Rolex so rarely touches moonphases at all. The Padellone is a mix of all of this, suggesting that Rolex can still pull straight from its own archive, while also providing something genuinely new.
