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1 January 2022, 12:44 PM | #1 |
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Original Gas Escape Valve
Floating around in the ocean one balmy evening this week (wearing a Sea-Dweller of course), I couldn’t help pondering the automatic gas escape valve.
Has anyone ever seen this in the “open” position? I’d expect that the valve activates for a brief instant only (to equilibrate pressure) however, it’d be cool to see this in action either in the lab or real-world situations. And yes, I know this is completely academic for nearly all of us who won’t take their watches to even 1% of their rated depth (let-alone into a He-mixed gas dive chamber) but still….. |
1 January 2022, 12:54 PM | #2 |
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I’m not sure how anyone could see this valve ‘open’ but it won’t be operating under water?
Iirc it requires a differential of about 45 psi.
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1 January 2022, 01:01 PM | #3 |
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Original Gas Escape Valve
There are a handful of commercial divers on the forum (though many are long inactive). We’ll have to wait to for their response if they have ever seen it function. Maybe Padi has?
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1 January 2022, 01:28 PM | #4 |
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Yeah, the only place it would be opening is in the decompression chamber on the surface. The divers are living in an environment in which Helium has replaced varying amounts of the nitrogen in the air, and might have been doing so for weeks, as well as living at pressures anywhere from 5x atmospheric pressure to a lot more than that. During that time the Helium has seeped into the watch as well. Apparently human tissue can off-gas faster than a sealed up watch (Helium is a much smaller molecule than nitrogen). So during the gradual process of returning to surface pressure (which can still take days) the little HEV will gradually pop open to relieve the excess pressure. Also apparently, oxygen and nitrogen either don't penetrate the case or do so in small enough amounts not to require an HEV.
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1 January 2022, 01:36 PM | #5 |
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Among professional divers working in saturation mode, you’d be surprised how seldom this comes up.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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1 January 2022, 02:00 PM | #6 | |
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I like it though! It feels like the Rolex forum of the past with these type of discussions. Someone will ask about HEV values soon . |
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1 January 2022, 05:21 PM | #7 |
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It would be impossible to ever see it in the open position without some serious magnification.
The Helium molecules are so small and the amount of time it would need to be open wouldn't amount to a fleeting thought of a little burp with the small amount of Helium it would need to bleed off. |
1 January 2022, 06:26 PM | #8 | |
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ICom Pro3 All posts are my own opinion and my opinion only. "The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop. Now is the only time you actually own the time, Place no faith in time, for the clock may soon be still for ever." Good Judgement comes from experience,experience comes from Bad Judgement,.Buy quality, cry once; buy cheap, cry again and again. www.mc0yad.club Second in command CEO and left handed watch winder |
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1 January 2022, 09:40 PM | #9 |
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Been in a recompression chamber a few times with my 16600 SD after breathing high Helium gas mix but that was many many years ago but never watched it to see if it moved but it would be a blink of your eye quick. And talking about the the HEV it was around 1969 when Doxa introduced the first divers watch equipped with a Helium Release Valve, that was available first to the general public.And its widely believed to have been co-developed by Doxa and Rolex at that time.Now Rolex submitted a prototype patent on 6th November 1967, its thought only around 50 of these double Red 1665s were distributed with patent pending backs.Although Rolex fitted Submariners (model 5513 - non date) with prototypes of this escape valve, for the COMEX divers.They did not start to build the Helium Release Valve into their retail dive watches until the SD in 1971,two years after the Doxa. Now after a bit of negotiations with Doxa and both companies had a very good working relationship at that time.So its widely believed they decided to share the HEV Valve patent,just to get it into production and for sale to the public the new HEV Rolex SD.
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ICom Pro3 All posts are my own opinion and my opinion only. "The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop. Now is the only time you actually own the time, Place no faith in time, for the clock may soon be still for ever." Good Judgement comes from experience,experience comes from Bad Judgement,.Buy quality, cry once; buy cheap, cry again and again. www.mc0yad.club Second in command CEO and left handed watch winder |
1 January 2022, 10:07 PM | #10 | |
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Thanks for sharing your abundance of knowledge with us Peter!! Sent from my Apple privacy invasion product |
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1 January 2022, 10:28 PM | #11 | |
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1 January 2022, 10:59 PM | #12 | |
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ICom Pro3 All posts are my own opinion and my opinion only. "The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop. Now is the only time you actually own the time, Place no faith in time, for the clock may soon be still for ever." Good Judgement comes from experience,experience comes from Bad Judgement,.Buy quality, cry once; buy cheap, cry again and again. www.mc0yad.club Second in command CEO and left handed watch winder |
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1 January 2022, 11:20 PM | #13 | |
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Presumably this is because of the differences in the time the watch is subject to the different pressures? Typically do divers stay in the high pressure / helium concentration environment for a lot longer than the time needed for safe decompression? Does it take longer for the helium to get in than it does to decompress? You can, no doubt, tell that my diving experience is non existent! Thanks in advance. |
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1 January 2022, 11:36 PM | #14 | |
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2 January 2022, 06:13 AM | #15 |
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Thanks much appreciated.
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ICom Pro3 All posts are my own opinion and my opinion only. "The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop. Now is the only time you actually own the time, Place no faith in time, for the clock may soon be still for ever." Good Judgement comes from experience,experience comes from Bad Judgement,.Buy quality, cry once; buy cheap, cry again and again. www.mc0yad.club Second in command CEO and left handed watch winder |
2 January 2022, 06:19 AM | #16 | |
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2 January 2022, 07:11 AM | #17 | |
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The exposure time in the Helium environment is many times longer than the duration of decompression. It gets in slowly, but can't get out quick enough without the valve facilitating it thus preventing the Crystal from popping off. |
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2 January 2022, 07:54 AM | #18 | |
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Thanks Padi - enjoy reading about the pioneering Rolex and other watch brands supported through their R&D! I tried on a DSSD for the first time just yesterday, it’s heft instills a fair bit of confidence!
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2 January 2022, 08:08 AM | #19 |
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2 January 2022, 07:51 PM | #20 | |
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2 January 2022, 08:12 PM | #21 | |
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ICom Pro3 All posts are my own opinion and my opinion only. "The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop. Now is the only time you actually own the time, Place no faith in time, for the clock may soon be still for ever." Good Judgement comes from experience,experience comes from Bad Judgement,.Buy quality, cry once; buy cheap, cry again and again. www.mc0yad.club Second in command CEO and left handed watch winder |
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4 January 2022, 11:52 AM | #22 |
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Great responses and discussion folks - thanks!
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4 January 2022, 01:33 PM | #23 |
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Such great stuff. Thank you as always, Padi.
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4 January 2022, 02:00 PM | #24 |
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And who knows if the valve is designed to just let helium out or to better equalize the air pressure. Basically "burping" the watch. Rolexes are designed around positive pressure gradients (water pushing from the outside) not negative pressure gradients (air pushing from the inside). A saturation diver might be operating at anything from 5 times normal atmospheric pressure (~ 160 ft/50 meters) to a LOT more. Some of the older COMEX divers were working at 50+ atm.
Rolexes are basically 1 atm submersible's. |
4 January 2022, 02:09 PM | #25 |
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Whilst on the subject of saturation diving, have you seen the following documentary on Netflix. An absolute must watch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Breath_(2019_film) |
4 January 2022, 03:43 PM | #26 | |
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Original Gas Escape Valve
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Great documentary. The scene of Dave hauling a “thing” that needed to be taken from one place to another was awe inducing. I cannot begin to comprehend the tremendous effort and strength needed to do what that man did. Mobility in a dry suit alone is severely impaired, that compounded by water pressure, weight of gear... unreal. |
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4 January 2022, 10:20 PM | #27 |
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Check the following video out to get an idea of the mechanics in theoretical action:
https://youtu.be/SPvtXaI7dYQ and the following article: https://millenarywatches.com/rolex-helium-escape-valve/ |
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126600 , 126660 , deepsea , sea dweller |
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