Rolex Helium Escape valve beginners guide

[Joergen]

A guide to Rolex Helium escape valve. Hopefully it can bring someone value!

https://millenarywatches.com/rolex-helium-escape-valve/

[watchmavan]

Not too shabby an explanation but this also highlights the utter pointlessness of Omega's HEV. It is a total waste of time and design given it must be manually operated to open and close. There's another HEV at 3 o'clock that works on the same way.


And for those that say ooohhhhhh, don't use the crown, it's too much stress, I call, bull$>!t.


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[padi56]

Originally Posted by watchmavan

Not too shabby an explanation but this also highlights the utter pointlessness of Omega's HEV. It is a total waste of time and design given it must be manually operated to open and close. There's another HEV at 3 o'clock that works on the same way.


And for those that say ooohhhhhh, don't use the crown, it's too much stress, I call, bull$>!t.


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Most all of that information is already on forum my post way back in 2009 explains more fully.It was in November 1967 that A. Zilbach, a Rolex technician who had worked in close collaboration with COMEX received the Swiss patent number 492,246 for a helium escape valve,shared with Doxa to rush it though. This was the result of experiments carried out with early 5513 Submariners which had been fitted with prototypes of this escape valve.These watches were used by COMEX divers for over 2 years without any problems and so the decision was made to produce a standard watch with this feature; it was, of course, the SD. The largest purchaser of these watches was and is COMEX; every diver who works for the company is issued with one and to prevent the watches from being "misplaced" Rolex print the name of the company on the dial of every watch. COMEX themselves also engrave the rear of the watch with their name and a unique serial number.The HEV is just a one way valve fully automatic on the SD and DSSD its for saturation divers who work underwater and reside at depth in dry chambers at the same outside water pressure.The gas they breath high helium content the gas particles are that small they can pass thought the watch crystal seals etc.And when the divers are being re-compressed to normal atmosphere pressure, any gas thats in the watches escapes though the HEV valve. Other wise the gas would expand with the rise to normal atmospheric pressure, and the weakest point the crystal would most probably explode.A normal scuba diver would have no need to use the HEV on any watch.Think of it this way take a balloon down to 10m underwater. That is 2 atmospheres one water, one surface air pressure.Now fill that balloon with compressed air at that pressure of 2 atmospheres.Because the compressed air is now under-pressure and quite dense, you fill it but the amount of air content would be twice as much as normal above water surface pressure.Now release that balloon and let it go back to the surface because of the return to one atmosphere surface air pressure balloon would expand and burst simply because there was twice as much air in it at normal 1 atmosphere air surface pressure.

[77T]

Originally Posted by Joergen

A guide to Rolex Helium escape valve. Hopefully it can bring someone value!



https://millenarywatches.com/rolex-helium-escape-valve/

Thanks for sharing the recent review by Millenary - nice bubble pic, too.

I think our newer members who aren’t experts will find it understandable and well illustrated.


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[Boaters]

Great info thanks.

[Andad]

An old thread but:

The information from Millenary Watches is proof of their lack of understanding.

Water can’t get past a one way HE valve mainly because it doesn’t operate when under water.

As for the manual HE valve how would a wearer know when to open it without knowing when the internal pressure is about to blow the crystal off.

Millenary Watches didn’t know the internal pressure that will activate the HEV on a Rolex but we know it is about 35 psi.

All in all a pretty useless description of an HE valve by MW.

[v1triol]

Originally Posted by watchmavan

There's another HEV at 3 o'clock that works on the same way.

If it is that simple, why manufacturers are installing the HEV's in the first instance?

[watchmavan]

Originally Posted by v1triol

If it is that simple, why manufacturers are installing the HEV's in the first instance?

For the auto, because it's auto. With the Seamaster it's about them being different. And it is that simple. Helium just needs an avenue to escape when the pressure builds. Getting out via the crown will happen long before it pops the crystal. Saturation divers actually used this method. Remember this is not an issue in the water. It's an issue during decompression I n a dry environment in casual clothes.

The only divers that need this feature anyway are those divers, 99% commercial, that five deap enough and long enough where the air tanks are given a component of helium. They are given this to add pressure to their lungs. Being such a small partical, small amounts of helium can get into other places. Ie watch. As air pressure on the body begins to normalize in the watch in the decompression chamber, the helium has to escape, if any has penetrated.

For the Seamaster it's all marketing. I used to hate it, but...



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[watchmavan]

Originally Posted by v1triol

If it is that simple, why manufacturers are installing the HEV's in the first instance?

In the first place it was an auto escape valve. These are useful because you don't need to do anything yourself or remember.

Besides the HEV being utterly useless in the Seamaster watch, it is still a thing of beauty. That's why I have one.




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[PhilippeD]

Great read, thanks. Makes me appreciate my DSSD that much more.