Rolex Just Surprise-Dropped a New Watch

It’s the second-most exciting pair of words in the watch universe: New Rolex. (The first is “free watch.”) That delightful little coupling sounds even sweeter when it appears out of the blue. Typically, Rolex’s releases are meticulously unveiled at Watches and Wonders, the massive trade show that takes over Geneva every April. To get a new watch from the Crown in September feels like your parents waking you up as a child and telling you—surprise!—it’s Bonus Christmas. So, what’s wrapped inside the box today? A fresh model called the Perpetual Padellone—available in three distinct makeups—that is deeply indebted to one of the Crown’s most beloved vintage pieces.There’s a lot to take in here, so let’s break down the six most important to know.1. The basicsToday, Rolex is releasing three new watches as part of its Perpetual collection. That family launched in 2023 with the elegant 1908, which replaced the Barack Obama-favorite Cellini as the Crown’s primary dress model. Up until now, the 1908 has been a fairly uncomplicated watch, but all that changes today with the release of the Perpetual Padellone.The three new watches feature an annual calendar—a complication that displays the date, day, and month, and only needs to be set once a year (at the conclusion of pesky February). Two of the new Padellones come in rose gold with a white dial, on either a leather bracelet ($59,000) or Rolex’s slinky new Settimo bracelet ($72,800). My favorite of the bunch is the third option: a platinum version with an ice-blue dial that pairs especially well with the moonphase’s dark-blue backdrop ($66,200).2. We hope you like frying pansAccording to Rolex, the Perpetual Padellone was directly inspired by the vintage reference 8171, a watch with a calendar function and moonphase from 1949. The watch was big for its era (38mm), which led collectors to start calling it the Padellone, which is Italian for “large frying pan.” There are dozens of Rolex watches with quirky nicknames, but as Hodinkee points out, this might be the first to make its moniker official.3. The story behind the vintage inspirationRolex’s experimentation with these types of watches was short-lived and contained to two core references:A vintage ref. 8171 “Padellone” The ref. 8171 is an extremely un-Rolex Rolex. The brand is known mainly for its sport watches, and by 1949 it had already earned its sterling reputation for crafting waterproof timepieces with its Oyster cases. The 8171, with its calendar and cutesy moon phase, was already a departure for the brand, but add in the fact that it wasn’t waterproof, and you have a true anomaly in the catalog. The watch was only produced for four years, from 1949 to 1953 (although some sources have it as ’52).A vintage ref. 6062 with a star dial PhillipsRef. 6062 brought a watch with the same technical abilities more into the Rolex universe. While it featured a calendar and moon phase like the 8171, the 6062 came in a 36mm Oyster case. The 6062 is an all-time grail for me, especially the “Stelline” dials with star-shaped hour markers. Here’s to hoping Rolex just opened the door to reviving that design.4. The Padellone is one of the most desirable vintage watches“The vintage Padellone ref. 8171 from the early 1950s is certainly considered one of the ultimate vintage Rolexes to collect,” says Paul Boutros, deputy chairman and head of Americas for Phillips auction house. “They are firmly in the pantheon of not only the all-time greatest Rolex watches, but also the all-time greatest wristwatches across all brands.”The “Bao Dai,” a version of the 6062 with a black dial that was owned by Vietnam’s last emperor, sold for $5,060,427 in 2021, making it one of the most expensive Rolex pieces ever sold at auction. But these complete-calendar Rolex watches don’t require such elaborate provenance to hook in clients. “When we are fortunate to receive one that is extremely well-preserved, it becomes a top highlight of the auction, drawing bidders from all around the world,” Boutros says.5. The modern version of the PadelloneWhile Rolex clearly looked toward the past to find inspiration for this new watch, it’s been heavily modernized and tweaked to fit in with the Perpetual collection. Some major changes include:The smooth, polished bezel on the original 8171 has been swapped out for a fluted one that mirrors the new 1908.The faces on the two moons share the Mona Lisa-esque smize of the original, but are made out of actual meteorite on the new pieces.The dials on this new watch feature a heavily grained finish for added textureRolex has borrowed the very modern-looking 3 and 9 o’clock numerals from the 1908 pieces and placed them on the new Padellones. For me, the numerals diminish some of the charm that the originals exude, but it would be foolish to expect Rolex to release a carbon copy of something from its archives.The most innovation happens inside the watch. The brand patented a new way to execute a calendar that helps make the watch more efficient and thinner.6. Rolex isn’t satisfied with being the industry’s most dominant brandThe Crown is by far the biggest name in watches, but it appears they’re not content with the already massive chunk of mindshare it already owns. The brand has been operating way outside of its comfort zone all year: delivering boisterous versions of its Oyster Perpetual, crafting a pièce unique for Drake, and rendering four one-of-one Daytonas in zany colors for an upcoming auction.Now, Rolex is further staking its claim outside of the sport watches it’s known for. The brand is continuing to develop its dress watch options beyond the 1908, and it’s smartly leveraging a beloved vintage model in its quest for even greater dominance.