Rolex Perpetual Padellone Explained
What Rolex launched in September 2026, what the name means, how the calendar works, and why the vintage original sells for six figures.
The Rolex Perpetual Padellone in brief:
- Launched 15 September 2026: a 39 mm annual calendar with moonphase in Everose gold or platinum, calibre 7190.
- UK prices at launch run from £49,150 to £60,700. It is not a limited edition.
- Padellone means "large frying pan" in Italian, the collectors' nickname for Rolex ref. 8171 of 1949.
- Good vintage 8171s have sold for around CHF 1 million at auction.
In this article
What Rolex launched
Rolex unveiled the Perpetual Padellone on 15 September 2026, in Milan. It is the second model in Rolex's dress-watch Perpetual collection, after the 1908 of 2023, and puts the day, the month, the date and the phase of the moon on one dial.
References: 53505 in 18ct Everose gold; 53506 in 950 platinum. Regular production, not limited.
Case: 39 mm across, 12.2 mm thick, domed fluted bezel, sapphire caseback, water resistant to 50 m.
Dial: white on the Everose gold model, ice blue on the platinum, with a blue enamelled moon disc.
Strap or bracelet: alligator leather, or the new seven-link Settimo bracelet on the Everose gold model.
Sources: Monochrome Watches and aBlogtoWatch launch reports, September 2026.
How much is the Rolex Padellone in the UK?
| Model | UK | US | Switzerland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everose gold, brown alligator strap (53505-0002) | £49,150 | $59,000 | CHF 52,500 |
| Platinum, black alligator strap (53506-0002) | £55,300 | $66,200 | CHF 59,000 |
| Everose gold, Settimo bracelet (53505-0003) | £60,700 | $72,800 | CHF 64,800 |
Retail prices at launch, September 2026: UK from Oracle of Time, US from aBlogtoWatch, Swiss from Monochrome. Esquire led its launch story with the £60,700 bracelet model.
How the calendar works
The layout is simple: day and month in windows at 12, the date on a central pointer hand reading to 31 around the edge, and the moon at 6.
The name invites a common mistake. "Perpetual" on a Rolex refers to the self-winding rotor Rolex introduced in 1931, not to a perpetual calendar.
The Padellone has an annual calendar, which Rolex calls Haplos. It knows which months have 30 days and which have 31 and changes over at midnight on its own, so it needs one correction a year, at the end of February.
| Calendar | What it tracks | Corrections needed |
|---|---|---|
| Simple date | The date only, always counting to 31 | Five times a year, after every short month |
| Triple or complete calendar | Day, date and month, still counting to 31 | Five times a year |
| Annual calendar | Day, date and month, and knows 30 and 31-day months | Once a year, at the end of February |
| Perpetual calendar | Everything above, plus February and leap years | None until 2100, which is not a leap year |
The moonphase
The moon at 6 follows the lunar month of about 29.5 days, so the moon in the window waxes and wanes with the real one.
The vintage Padellone of 1949 was a triple calendar, so its owner reset the date after every short month. The new watch keeps the old dial layout and adds the annual calendar mechanism behind it.
What does Padellone mean?
Padellone is Italian for "large frying pan". It is the nickname Italian collectors gave Rolex reference 8171, a triple calendar with moonphase made for a few years from 1949.
At 38 mm it was big for a dress watch of its day, with a broad, flat dial, and the nickname stuck.
Rolex has now made the collectors' nickname the official name of a new watch.
The original: Rolex reference 8171
Made: from 1949, for a few years in the early 1950s, in stainless steel and gold.
Case: 38 mm, with a snap-on caseback rather than a screwed Oyster case.
Movement: calibre A295, self-winding.
Calendar: triple calendar: day and month windows, pointer date, moon at 6.
Phillips, which has sold several, notes that the 8171 and its sister reference 6062 were the only two vintage Rolex models with a moonphase. The 6062, launched in 1950, put the same calendar in a smaller, screw-down Oyster case.
Why collectors chase the old ones
Rolex is best known for sports watches and simple date displays, so its few calendar moonphases stand out.
Three results at Phillips in Geneva show where the vintage references sit. These are exceptional examples in exceptional condition, not typical values.
| Watch | Sale | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Ref. 6062 "Bao Dai", yellow gold, black dial with diamond markers, owned by the last Emperor of Vietnam | Phillips Geneva, May 2017 | CHF 5,066,000, then a record for any Rolex at auction |
| Ref. 8171 Padellone, stainless steel, about 1950 | Phillips Geneva, 10 November 2019 | CHF 1,028,000 |
| Ref. 8171 Padellone, 18ct yellow gold, about 1950, with box | Phillips Geneva, May 2019 | CHF 980,000 |
Prices include the buyer's premium.
After the 1950s, Rolex did not return to the moonphase until the Cellini Moonphase of 2017, and its only modern annual calendar before the Padellone was the Sky-Dweller of 2012, a sports-luxury watch with a second time zone.
How the new Padellone compares
| Ref. 8171 (1949) | Perpetual Padellone (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 38 mm | 39 mm, 12.2 mm thick |
| Case | Snap-on back, not water resistant | Sapphire display back, 50 m |
| Calendar | Triple calendar, five resets a year | Annual calendar, one reset a year |
| Movement | Calibre A295 | Calibre 7190, self-winding, 5 Hz, Dynapulse, about 66 hours; Superlative Chronometer (within 2 seconds a day) |
| Metals | Steel or gold | Everose gold or platinum, no steel |
| Price | Six figures at auction for good examples | £49,150 to £60,700 new |
Within the current Rolex range, the Padellone sits above the 1908, which shows only the time, and alongside the Land-Dweller of 2025, whose calibre 7135 introduced the Dynapulse escapement that the 7190 builds on.
Its domed fluted bezel follows the fluted bezels of earlier Rolex, such as this Datejust ref. 1601.
Annual calendars elsewhere at this level include Patek Philippe, which introduced the first one in 1996: see our Patek Philippe guide.
Why the Padellone is hard to buy
Rolex does not sell watches online. New ones are sold only through Official Rolex Retailers, which decide who is offered each watch.
Oracle of Time's launch report tells buyers to "expect the usual waiting lists" at official retailers.
Calibre 7190 was developed for this watch alone, with 30 patent applications. It is not shared with a high-volume model.
Interest is rising faster than supply can show. In the 30 days to 2 October 2026, Google Trends recorded UK searches for "rolex padellone" up 62,300%, the only rising Rolex search in the UK, and US searches for "rolex padellone price" up 22,750%. Figures that large mean a search that was close to zero before launch.
What about the secondary market?
Two weeks after launch, there is no settled resale price for the new Padellone, and we do not publish predictions. What can be said:
- It is regular production, not a limited edition, so supply will keep coming from retailers.
- One US dealer's listing we checked on 2 October 2026 showed "price on request" and no stock.
- The vintage 8171 and 6062 are a separate market, priced on rarity, condition and originality. A new watch named after them does not change what an original is.
For what modern Rolex models actually resell for, see our Rolex value guide, and for older pieces, the vintage Rolex market in 2026 and vintage gold Rolex models.
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- The Perpetual Padellone is a 39 mm annual calendar moonphase in Everose gold or platinum, from £49,150.
- It revives the dial of ref. 8171, the 1949 triple calendar Italian collectors called the "large frying pan".
- Annual, not perpetual: one date correction a year, at the end of February.
- It is regular production but sold only through official retailers, with waiting lists expected.
Questions we are asked
What is the Rolex Perpetual Padellone?
A 39 mm Rolex dress watch launched on 15 September 2026, in Everose gold or platinum, with an annual calendar and moonphase: day and month in windows, the date on a pointer hand and the moon at 6 o'clock. It runs on the new calibre 7190.
How much is the Rolex Padellone in the UK?
At launch, £49,150 for Everose gold on a strap, £55,300 for platinum on a strap and £60,700 for Everose gold on the Settimo bracelet.
What does Padellone mean?
Large frying pan, in Italian. Italian collectors gave the name to Rolex reference 8171, a 38 mm triple calendar moonphase from 1949 whose wide dial looked large for its day.
Is the Rolex Padellone a perpetual calendar?
No. It is an annual calendar and needs one correction a year, at the end of February. "Perpetual" in Rolex names refers to the self-winding rotor.
Is the Padellone a limited edition?
No. It is a regular production model sold through Official Rolex Retailers, where waiting lists are expected.
What movement is in the Padellone?
Calibre 7190: self-winding, 5 Hz, about 66 hours of power reserve, with the Dynapulse escapement first seen in the Land-Dweller and an annual calendar mechanism Rolex calls Haplos.
How much is a vintage Rolex 8171 worth?
Exceptional examples have sold at auction for close to a million Swiss francs: CHF 1,028,000 for a steel 8171 and CHF 980,000 for a gold one, both at Phillips in Geneva in 2019. Condition and originality decide the price.
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