The Rolex Perpetual Padellone is the complicated Rolex we’ve been waiting for
Tom Austin- The Rolex Perpetual Padellone revives one of the brand’s most celebrated calendar watches, bringing the spirit of the ref. 8171 into an entirely new generation.
- Its complete annual calendar combines day, date, month and moonphase indications, with the three calendar displays jumping instantaneously and simultaneously at midnight.
- Available in Everose gold or platinum, the 39mm Padellone introduces the 5Hz calibre 7190 and can be specified with Rolex’s seven-link Settimo bracelet or alligator leather.
For years, one of the more desired, persistent rumours surrounding Rolex has been that the brand was preparing to return to classical complications. The arrival of the 1908 in 2023 gave that idea considerably more weight. Here was a Rolex with a transparent caseback, a distinctly traditional shape and an entirely different character from the Oyster models that dominate the modern catalogue. Three years later, we finally know where that path was leading. The new Perpetual Padellone becomes the second member of the Perpetual collection, and it is comfortably the most mechanically ambitious Rolex we have seen in modern times. Inspired by the legendary ref. 8171 produced around the turn of the 1950s, it brings the complete calendar and moonphase back to Rolex in spectacular fashion.
The Padellone arrives with a case measuring 39mm, offered in either 18ct Everose gold or 950 platinum. Its proportions and overall architecture draw heavily from the original ref. 8171, with long, gently curved lugs and a bezel that combines a domed upper surface with fine fluting around its lower section. That fluting gives the case a particularly distinctive profile, especially alongside the prominent winding crown and the four discreet correctors positioned around the caseband for setting the calendar and moonphase indications. Those adjustments can be made at any time without compromising the movement, which makes living with a watch of this complexity considerably easier.
Complicated calendar watches can suffer from the difficulty of needing to display a lot of information in a small area, but Rolex has arranged it with an impressive degree of clarity. The Everose gold versions receive a grained intense white dial, while platinum is paired with the ice blue that has become synonymous with Rolex’s most prestigious metal. Day and month sit alongside one another in twin apertures at 12 o’clock, with the date indicated around the perimeter by a blued hand tipped with a crescent moon.
At six sits the feature that really defines the Padellone, and something missing from the Crown’s catalogue since the final Cellini model: a fully visible blue enamel moonphase disc; however, this one makes one complete rotation every lunar month, or 29.53 days. The full and new moons are made from meteorite, with the latter receiving a dark blue PVD treatment, and both carry pad-printed faces as a direct reference to the historic Padellone. It is wonderfully eccentric by Rolex standards and gives the watch an unusual amount of personality.
The calendar itself is equally interesting. Rolex describes the Padellone as a complete calendar, displaying the day, date, month, and moonphase, with a new system that allows the movement to automatically distinguish between months with 30 and 31 days. That makes it an annual calendar requiring a single correction each year as February rolls into March. At midnight, the day, date and month all change simultaneously in a fraction of a second. Rolex has filed a patent application for this instantaneous mechanism, adding serious mechanical theatre to a complication usually appreciated at a more leisurely pace.
Driving the Padellone is the new calibre 7190, of course, developed and manufactured entirely in-house and visible through the exhibition caseback. It evolves from the calibre 7135 introduced with the Land-Dweller in 2025, running at the same unusually high frequency of 5Hz and incorporating Rolex’s ambitious Dynapulse escapement, Syloxi silicon hairspring and ceramic balance staff.
The movement also debuts the Haplos system, which achieves its annual-calendar programming using just two additional components coupled to the date mechanism. Visually, there is plenty to enjoy through the back too, including a cut-out yellow-gold oscillating weight and bridges decorated with Rolex Côtes de Genève. Rolex says the movement is covered by 30 patent applications, two of which are exclusive to the Padellone.
Three configurations will be available. The Everose gold model can be ordered on a brown alligator leather strap or Rolex’s Settimo bracelet, while the platinum model comes on matte black alligator leather. First introduced on the 1908 in 2025, the Settimo feels particularly at home on this new model. Its seven small, slightly contoured links give it the jewellery-like appearance of bracelets found on vintage watches, and on the Padellone it completes the mid-century character beautifully. The leather options make for a more formal interpretation, with the brown strap warming up the Everose case and black alligator giving the ice-blue platinum model a suitably under-the-radar finish.
The 1908 had always suggested Rolex had bigger plans for that design, and the Padellone makes those intentions abundantly clear. A 39mm precious-metal complete annual calendar with an enamel lunar-year moonphase display, meteorite moons, instantaneous calendar indications and an entirely new 5Hz movement is a significant statement from a brand that rarely makes moves of this scale. Perhaps most excitingly, the Padellone is only the second watch in the Perpetual collection. If this is where Rolex has taken it after three years, then all that talk about a new era of classical complications suddenly feels well founded.
Rolex Perpetual Padellone pricing and availability
The Rolex Perpetual Padellone is now available from Rolex boutiques. Price: £60,700 (Everose, Settimo bracelet) / £55,300 (Platinum, black leather strap) / £49,150 (Everose, brown leather strap)
| Brand | Rolex |
| Model | Perpetual Padellone |
| Reference | 53505 – Everose 53506 – Platinum |
| Case Dimensions | 39mm (D) x 12.2mm (T) x 45.1mm (LTL) |
| Case Material | Everose, Platinum |
| Water Resistance | 50 metres |
| Crystal(s) | Sapphire front and back |
| Dial | Intense white, matt grained finish Ice blue, matt grained finish |
| Lug Width | 20mm |
| Strap | Everose gold Settimo bracelet, folding clasp, brown or black alligator leather, folding clasp |
| Movement | Calibre 7190, in-house, automatic |
| Power Reserve | 66 hours |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds, instantaneous complete annual calendar with Haplos system, instantaneous date via additional centre hand with secure rapid-setting, instantaneous day and month in two apertures at 12 o’clock with secure rapid-setting, moonphase at 6 o’clock with secure rapid-setting |
| Availability | Available now |
| Price | £60,700 (Everose, Settimo bracelet) £55,300 (Platinum, black leather strap) £49,150 (Everose, brown leather strap) |