What is a Helium Release Valve, and why do you need one?!

Wherein Dr. Know-it-all expounds on mechanical watches, crowns, helium release valves (or HRVs, or helium escape valves), and saturation diving. How does a helium release valve work, and why is it useful? Find out how all of these are connected by watching!

[pistonburner]

Finally I found someone who properly explains the helium release valve! So many supposed experts that explain it wrong/incompletely. Others clearly don't really know what they're talking about, don't talk about saturation divers at all, they think all divers can/should use this while diving...in the water.

[SaHaRaSquad]

Fun fact: iPhones once had an issue where the device would crash and turn off when exposed to helium. Turns out the internal accelerometer sensors weren't sealed tight enough for the gas and went crazy with helium inside, which crashed the phone's operating system. It was fixed at some point by improving the seals around the sensors, but it was fun reading stories of e.g. hospital technicians doing maintenance on (helium-cooled) MRI machines and suddenly all the iPhones in the building would turn off.

[jamisgood]

Love me Omega watches! I think they're the cream of the crop for the money. Not as flashy or arrogant seeming as Rolex, but just as amazing craftsmanship and history.

[thomasarcturus]

Relevant part starts at 3:44. Excellent explanation. Others that I've found don't explain how the helium gets in.

[mortaza.malick]

You earned your subscriber dear sir. Very well elaborated. Thank you.

[williamgrissom]

Hey forgive the stupid question, but why couldn't you unscrew the regular crown to release the pressure?

[fmel]

Wouldn't the crown serve the same function? Then we wouldn"t need the wart on the side.

[bloodymarvelous]

A couple of inaccuracies there. The water pressure doesn't double every 10 meters. Every 10 meters (or 33 feet) equals 1 atmosphere. So at the surface you're at 1 atmosphere. At 10 meters you're at 2 atmosphere. At 20 meters you're at 3 atmosphere. At 30 meters you're at 4 atmosphere.

It's not only that helium is made up of only 2 protons and 2 neutrons, but that's it a single atom molecule. Most gasses consist of 2 or more atoms (H₂, O₂, N₂). Hydrogen is only one proton, but it takes two atoms to create one hydrogen molecule (H₂), and is therefore larger than a helium molecule. A hydrogen molecule is even larger than a single oxygen atom, but since oxygen is also a 2 atom molecule (O₂) it can't ingress into the watch.

You also mentioned "compression diving", where you meant "saturation diving". Compression diving is any kind of diving which requires decompression stops.

[saleh-dtqj]

Such a happy and beautiful soul you have❣️

[SB-Kiwi]

Why not just use the main crown to release helium instead of adding a second one?

[JoeFramo-uwfp]

I hope you're feeling better this is an interesting watch offers a lot of things

[morganjenkins]

Why could you not just let the pressure out of the normal crown?

[tirta]

Why not just unwind the main crown to release the pressure??

[vokso]

Finally someone explains it so perfectly ! thank you so much ! no I know that my Gshock is perfect for recreational scuba diving !

[DC-lekf]

Great video, and thank you for taking your time to talk about all the details of this watch

[TH-jmnq]

Thanks a lot Brother.... your expectation was very useful and I benefited a lot from him.

[Mixedpuppy]

Great explanation of a complicated issue. The HRVs on watches are somewhat of a cool novelty nowadays but the quality watches it should be functional for the actual divers who need it.
Curious as to what companies actually make dove watches with HRVs? Rolex and Omega seem like Originals. Ball Watch Company. Who else?

[jochengonzales]

Great videos. I can't wait for mine to arrive :)

[legokingiscool]

Love the channel sir I appreciate it! 😎 I want to be like Bond but Seamasters are so expensive... One day ill get a submariner too. Till then ill enjoy my Seiko King Turtle 💪👑🐢

[AndyinMokum]

A cool explanation of what the helium release valve is for, thanks. A correction for you. Helium is the first in the noble gas group, (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radioactive radon). This group of gasses are monatomic. They're inert and as such under normal conditions, they don't form molecules, even with themselves. They remain as free atoms.