Why has Rolex launched its latest Padellone watch in Milan?
The Swiss brand chose to unveil its latest creation, named after a frying pan, in the Italian city which is fast becoming a destination for the watch world
Milan’s Palazzo Serbelloni has seen its fair share of history since it was built in the late 18th century. In 1796, Napoleon lived there for a few weeks; in 1943, bombing destroyed its famous library. And today, its frescoed halls have hosted the launch of a timepiece named after a kitchen utensil: arguably the most important and certainly the least expected watch made by Rolex this year.
That the Swiss watch brand has chosen Milan, a city better known for handbags than hairsprings, to unveil the Padellone to retailers and media is remarkable. Especially given that Patek Philippe has also decided to open its Grand Exhibition next month in the city of the Sforzas.
Nor is it just Rolex and Patek Philippe that have made themselves at home in Milan. LVMH held its watch week in Milan at the beginning of the year and Jaeger-LeCoultre staged an exhibition in the spring.
“We chose Milano because the name of the watch is Padellone, which was invented by Italian collectors,” explains Jean-Frédéric Dufour, Rolex chief executive, of the latest timepiece which goes on sale in November. “Historically, the connection between Rolex and Italy is very strong. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, if a watch succeeded in Italy, it succeeded worldwide.”
The Padellone (ranging from £49,150 to £60,700) is a love letter to a different, older kind of Rolex, which predates the hegemony of the Oyster-cased Professional range. The Submariner launched in 1953 just as the Padellone was discontinued. The Padellone (the Italian word for a large frying pan) was the nickname Italian vintage watch dealers gave to the Ref 8171, a triple calendar moonphase watch Rolex made only briefly in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
It looks nothing like a frying pan, but the name stuck and has become today’s official, trademarked name. Italy has a rich collecting tradition and Italian dealer slang has now become watch-world shorthand, including “Padellone”, “Cioccolatone” and “Ovettone”.
The new Padellone has a 39mm case in 18-carat Everose gold (a gold alloy mixed with copper to give a unique colour and resistance) or 950 platinum. It joins the 1908 model, which was launched in 2023, as the second member of the Perpetual collection. These are Rolexes designed for people who aren’t drawn to the steel sports watch look often associated with the brand.
Its dial is a masterclass in restrained elegance: day and month positioned at 12 o’clock; a slim blue hand tipped with a crescent moon moves around a peripheral date ring; and at 6 o’clock a blue enamelled moonphase disc, its full and new moons cut from meteorite (Rolex uses meteorite on some of its rarer watches and here it is a poetic nod to the celestial nature of this complication). Each moon is decorated with a whimsical human face, a subtle paraphrase of the original 1940s dial from the Ref 8171.
What makes it genuinely new, rather than just a handsome tribute model, is the use of a new calibre 7190, an evolution of the 7135 launched last year. Two additional components, added to the date mechanism and known as the ‘Haplos system’, turn a calendar wristwatch into an annual calendar able to tell the difference between 30-day and 31-day months, requiring human intervention just once a year, at the end of February. Perhaps Rolex’s most nostalgic launch is simultaneously one of its most technically advanced.
Weeks after the Rolex launch, Patek Philippe will bring its Watch Art Grand Exhibition to Milan on October 2. This biennial celebration of high-end watchmaking has previously been held in London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo. But Patek’s choice of Milan this year for the largest such exhibition it has staged may be the greatest endorsement yet of the city’s emerging dominance in fine-watch trading.
Rolex and Patek Philippe have realised that Milan sells — and not just to the Milanese. The city’s flat tax on new residents’ foreign income has become the single most cited explanation for the city’s transformed character and influx of wealthy new residents from abroad. Although it has risen from €100,000 to €300,000, it remains value for money for the genuinely wealthy. In contrast, the UK’s decision to change its non-domiciled rules is cited as another factor in London’s diminished appeal.
“London has lost its stature because of the end of VAT-free shopping and the aggressive competition from other cities, Milan among them,” says Jean Arnault, head of LVMH’s watch division.
Jérôme Lambert, Jaeger-LeCoultre chief executive, says that for two years his brand has staged an annual design exhibition in Milan during the Salone del Mobile furniture and design fair. This year it showcased designer Marc Newson’s work for the brand. “When we do the exhibition, we see 15,000 to 20,000 visitors in one week,” Lambert says. “For a city like Milan, that’s quite remarkable.”
He describes the city as “a kind of lighthouse for style — a reference point for understanding taste before it manifests elsewhere”. His figures bear him out; Jaeger’s business in Milan is “roughly 50 per cent more important” than pre-Covid, he says. He credits not only tourism but the seasonal influx from fashion and design weeks. He says there is “a new dynamism” in the city.
Arnault adds that “Italian men have been pioneering style and fashion for centuries long before sprezzatura was a thing”.
Arnault is impressed by the sophistication of the city’s collector community. “They go far beyond reflexive enthusiasm. They know when a lug has been redesigned, they’ll tell you if a dial’s font is wrong or numerals should be squarer. Only Singapore matches that level of scrutiny.”
The “Milan effect” extends beyond new watches. “We’re getting a lot of ‘virgins’,” says Max Bernardini, a dealer in vintage watches and homewares for more than 40 years. “People who have never bought a vintage watch and customers we never had before — Armenians, French, Londoners, people relocating from abroad.”
Milan hosts its own watch biennial Milano Watch Week, now in its second edition, this year coinciding with the Patek show. The MWW has also announced a partnership with Dubai Watch Week.
Arnault appreciates Milan’s refusal to hide wealth. “It creates a market more like Dubai but far more chic. I find it refreshing,” he says.