In the 1920s, Patek Philippe noticed a surge in the demand for chronograph wristwatches. At the beginning, some very small series and piece unique were made, mostly powered by a Victorian Piguet debauched, but by the 1930s it was clear that a serially produced model was necessary to satisfy demand. So it was then that reference 130, the first serially produced Patek Philippe chronograph, saw the light of day. Launched in 1934, it is powered by a heavily modified Valjoux movement, cal. 13 130, as the 13 lines movement was to be housed in the reference 130 case (as a matter of fact, only a few examples made before 1936 feature a different movement). The model was extremely successful and remained in production at least until 1964, and albeit it was manufactured for close to 30 years, the output is very limited, totalling about 1500 pieces. It was serially produced in yellow gold, pink gold and stainless steel (other metals have been used for special request pieces), with the steel version being the rarest: it is speculated about 146 examples in steel exist (about 65 known from the market).The rarity of the steel version is explained by the fact the Patek Philippe traditionally was - as it now - a high-end luxury brand, thus most of their clients opted for the more luxurious gold version, with the consequence of making the steel version the most scarce and thus, today, the most collectible.
