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Genius

How the HE valve works

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Genius

Just found these from an Omega manual thought it worth a share

 

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Piccolo

Thanks for that, interesting read. Doubt I'll ever need to use one properly mind you :D

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wdev

Great read. So, in essence a functionality which is only needed when you spend time a few days underwater (very deep underwater, that is).

 

Still, I like that extra crown, it looks cool

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brang1

who the fuck in the world wearing and Omega is going to be spending days in a diving bell.. no one, never really knew its exact purpose, so its good to find out

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Beetleything

You only need the helium valve if you are going serious deep sea diving - heck probably 90% of Subs don't see anything more than the swimming pool!

Edited by Beetleything

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Rokerite

These watches in gen are (or were) tool watches.I have read that computers have replaced them now but they were actually essential for divers back in the day.

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Diver Dave

Great read. So, in essence a functionality which is only needed when you spend time a few days underwater (very deep underwater, that is).

 

 

 

Not really...

 

Having "been there, done that":

 

In a hyperbaric chamber environment Helium goes past the seals of the watch pretty quickly. We had crystals pop off on ascent after chamber runs of just a few hours at 250 feet. The thing is that short chamber runs are pretty uncommon, and longer ones are more common. The bottom line is that these release valves are NEVER needed in a wet environment (diving) but only in a DRY hyperbaric chamber environment.

 

The need to unscrew a valve on the Omega is priceless... what a worthless thing. You can merely unscrew the crown of ANY shitty diving watch and vent it. Whe I was working as a sat diver we had two schools of thought as far as watches. There was the Rolex 1665 crowd (like me) and the cheap-watch crowd. The cheap-watch guys unthreaded their crowns during the descent phase in the chamber (allowing the case to equalize) and then screwed it down for the wet part, and unthreaded it for ascent in the chamber. That way your "barely waterproof shitty el-cheapo watch" could be used at 1000+ feet. No pressure differential = no leaks. The Rolex guys just ignored it and wore their watches. Omega takes the cake as far as making a *totally worthless watch* with a *totally worthless feature* suitable for desk diving and very little else.

 

 

Fashion over form.

 

 

As`far as tool use: I wore my 1665 Sea Dweller on my wrist for my entire professional diving career. When saturation diving you wear a hot water suit (they pump body temperature hot water into it to keep you warm, as helium is sucking your body heat out so fast it'll kill you in an hour in deep water), and I wore the watch under my glove. We did use them, constantly, during the bell runs (when the PTC or "Personnel Transfer Capsule" was separated from the DDC or "Deck Decompression Chamber" to then be lowered pressurized to the worksite, where it was equalized with outside water pressure and the bottom hatch opened, allowing us to exit to work. Two guys on a bell run, and both were always wearing watches to keep track of things. We worked a 10-12 hour bell run, 3 hours out, 3 in, swapping inside and outside duty. We timed out own swaps, while the life support techs topside took care of all of our gasses and other needs. Clasically we were under pressure for 2-3 weeks at a time before being decompressed once in the DDC. Decompression was about 10 days from 1000 feet.

 

Computers are definitely the norm for self contained diving these days, as they do your decompression calculations for you. HOWEVER... surface supplied (umbilical fed) divers rely on the LST's (Life Support Technicians) to do all of that for them, and wear an old fashioned divers watch to simply tell time with. Seiko's are pretty much the norm now among the professionals.

 

 

The Omega moon watches suffered from the popped crystal effect as well. On Apollo 11 one of the watches popped its crystal off when the LEM was vented into space, and a spare watch was taken along to the lunar surface as a replacement. Internal pressure greater than external pressure is the root cause of all of this. NASA should have had a checklist item to pull out the stems of the watches before venting the vehicle to space. Or worn Sea Dwellers...

.

 

I wore this 1665 every day for 38 years. It's been to 1000 feet diving, been worn at the geographic south pole, and been flying supersonic more times than I can count. Some people still use tools... ;-)

 

 

wAMXR0H.jpg

 

 

 

.

Edited by Diver Dave

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diplosa

Great read. So, in essence a functionality which is only needed when you spend time a few days underwater (very deep underwater, that is).

 

 

 

Not really...

 

Having "been there, done that":

 

In a hyperbaric chamber environment Helium goes past the seals of the watch pretty quickly. We had crystals pop off on ascent after chamber runs of just a few hours at 250 feet. The thing is that short chamber runs are pretty uncommon, and longer ones are more common. The bottom line is that these release valves are NEVER needed in a wet environment (diving) but only in a DRY hyperbaric chamber environment.

 

The need to unscrew a valve on the Omega is priceless... what a worthless thing. You can merely unscrew the crown of ANY shitty diving watch and vent it. Whe I was working as a sat diver we had two schools of thought as far as watches. There was the Rolex 1665 crowd (like me) and the cheap-watch crowd. The cheap-watch guys unthreaded their crowns during the descent phase in the chamber (allowing the case to equalize) and then screwed it down for the wet part, and unthreaded it for ascent in the chamber. That way your "barely waterproof shitty el-cheapo watch" could be used at 1000+ feet. No pressure differential = no leaks. The Rolex guys just ignored it and wore their watches. Omega takes the cake as far as making a *totally worthless watch* with a *totally worthless feature* suitable for desk diving and very little else.

 

 

Fashion over form.

 

 

As`far as tool use: I wore my 1665 Sea Dweller on my wrist for my entire professional diving career. When saturation diving you wear a hot water suit (they pump body temperature hot water into it to keep you warm, as helium is sucking your body heat out so fast it'll kill you in an hour in deep water), and I wore the watch under my glove. We did use them, constantly, during the bell runs (when the PTC or "Personnel Transfer Capsule" was separated from the DDC or "Deck Decompression Chamber" to then be lowered pressurized to the worksite, where it was equalized with outside water pressure and the bottom hatch opened, allowing us to exit to work. Two guys on a bell run, and both were always wearing watches to keep track of things. We worked a 10-12 hour bell run, 3 hours out, 3 in, swapping inside and outside duty. We timed out own swaps, while the life support techs topside took care of all of our gasses and other needs. Clasically we were under pressure for 2-3 weeks at a time before being decompressed once in the DDC. Decompression was about 10 days from 1000 feet.

 

Computers are definitely the norm for self contained diving these days, as they do your decompression calculations for you. HOWEVER... surface supplied (umbilical fed) divers rely on the LST's (Life Support Technicians) to do all of that for them, and wear an old fashioned divers watch to simply tell time with. Seiko's are pretty much the norm now among the professionals.

 

 

The Omega moon watches suffered from the popped crystal effect as well. On Apollo 11 one of the watches popped its crystal off when the LEM was vented into space, and a spare watch was taken along to the lunar surface as a replacement. Internal pressure greater than external pressure is the root cause of all of this. NASA should have had a checklist item to pull out the stems of the watches before venting the vehicle to space. Or worn Sea Dwellers...

.

 

I wore this 1665 every day for 38 years. It's been to 1000 feet diving, been worn at the geographic south pole, and been flying supersonic more times than I can count. Some people still use tools... ;-)

 

 

wAMXR0H.jpg

 

 

 

.

 

Awesome story and experience. Thank you for sharing!

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Diver Dave

These watches in gen are (or were) tool watches.I have read that computers have replaced them now but they were actually essential for divers back in the day.

 

 

The thing is that these watches were always designed for use for a diving method that includes exposure to helium in a dry hyperbaric environment, where the diver isn't responsible for any of his own timing of anything decompression or dive duration related. Dive durations are measured in days and weeks, and decompression is measured in days at minimum. "someone else" does that "topside", and that someone is called a LST (Life Support Technician).

 

What I'm getting to is that the mission for these watches as a tool hasn't gone away. They were (and are) used "just as a watch" by people living, sleeping eating, playing cards, and yes, diving, for weeks on end in a small steel chamber that's pressurized. You spend a LOT more time in your bunk than you do on the end of a hose working, trust me on this. You look at your watch 1000 times a day to keep track of when chow is gonna be served. That's as true now as before.

 

The diving for which decompression computers have mostly replaced watches NEVER needed a helium escape valve watch, as they are of no value when doing "wet" diving (IE: Not including exposure in a hyperbaric chamber). Some divers (like me) still wear one under our glove, but we rely on a computer for our real diving decompression calculations.

 

Here's a picture of a modern mixed gas technical diver, (me), diving where things count. That's a photo of myself in Lake Superior, at a depth of nearly 300 feet and a temperature of about 35 degrees F. I'm wearing a closed circuit mixed gas rebreather, which is a computer controlled life support system that mixes a helium/nitrogen/oxygen mixture with pure oxygen to support life, while removing carbon dioxide using a chemical scrubber agent. This system is good for about 8 hours at infinite depth and releases no bubbles except whiie ascending. I'm wearing a drysuit inflated with Argon, which is a far better insulator than air, as well as dry gloves and electrically heated underwear. You can see both of my two wrist mounted computers that we use to calculate our decompression in real-time, and hidden under the cuff of my dry glove is my ever-present Sea Dweller "just in case". Everything is redundant, and there's no room for error. The bottom times are in the 30-45 minute range with decompression times of 2-3 hours as a norm. Direct ascent to the surface would be immediately fatal, so we don't make mistakes.

 

The bell is from a wreck we discovered that sank in 1906, this was the first set of dives ever made to explore it. Photo from 2015.

 

So yeah... some people still wear a tool. Sat divers today either wear a watch with an escape valve, or vent their watches on ascent by pulling the stem. SCUBA (self contained) divers NEVER needed an escape valve watch, and for them the valve is just another thing to leak water. Truthfully they would be better off with a computer and a Casio watch.

 

In case you're wondering, I jump into the water for a dive like this wearing about $20K of diving equipment (without the Rolex...) > That light alone is worth $2K.

 

.

8f8BWVc.jpg

Edited by Diver Dave

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Diver Dave
Thanks - this answers my question on why the DeepSea Challenge does not have the He escape valve of the DSSD.

 

 

https://www.rolex.com/science-and-exploration/exploration-underwater/rolex-deepsea-challenge.html

 

 

Exactly.

 

The valve in a sea dweller is just a poppet and spring, about as simple as it can get. But there no need for it in "wet" diving.

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wdev

Very informative read, I like these tales from experience. Thanks for sharing.

 

In essence, Omega's HE valve is fashion over function. Majority of buyers will never, ever need it. Least of all, the 300m WR. I only ever dived to 40mtrs and I thought that was way deep :D

 

p.s do you still own that Seadweller? Looks like it has been handled like it should

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Diver Dave
Very informative read, I like these tales from experience. Thanks for sharing.

 

In essence, Omega's HE valve is fashion over function. Majority of buyers will never, ever need it. Least of all, the 300m WR. I only ever dived to 40mtrs and I thought that was way deep :D

 

 

p.s do you still own that Seadweller? Looks like it has been handled like it should

 

 

Thanks, and "exactly". There are probably 50 people worldwide who would use a helium valve and none of them are going to buy one they need to open up for ascent.

 

My 1665 has been retired from everyday wear after 38 uninterrupted years of daily wear. My daughter asked me to stop subjecting it to the possibility of loss, to preserve it as a family heirloom. A $mil wouldn't buy it.

 

 

Dave

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