Fun fact: the Rolex "deep sea" sea-dweller contains Helium and an Helium valve. I'm not too sure how they keep the Helium from escaping. James Cameron (who made the movie The Titanic) actually strapped a Rolex sea-dweller "deep sea" to a little robot submarine and sent it to 10 000 meters deep to see if Rolex was full of shit or not.
Turns out the "veblen good" did quite well and didn't break.
And James Cameron got a limited edition Rolex Sea-Dweller deep sea model named after him.
You have this backwards, the valve is to let the Helium out.
The watch was designed for saturation diving - people essentially living at high pressure in a pressure cylinder, breathing a mixed gas which includes a high helium percentage (as nitrogen becomes narcotic). This saved them hours of decompression every dive - just do one decompression at the end of the job.
The problem was despite all of the seals to withstand seawater, the watches would let helium in & gradually equalise the internal & external pressures. All fine until they came up to the surface, when the watch would blow the crystal off, as the helium couldn't escape quickly enough to equalise. The Helium valve is there to release this pressure on ascent.
The sea dweller was designed as a highly specialised tool for a specialised industry, before becoming luxury item.
Turns out the "veblen good" did quite well and didn't break.
And James Cameron got a limited edition Rolex Sea-Dweller deep sea model named after him.
The watch was designed for saturation diving - people essentially living at high pressure in a pressure cylinder, breathing a mixed gas which includes a high helium percentage (as nitrogen becomes narcotic). This saved them hours of decompression every dive - just do one decompression at the end of the job.
The problem was despite all of the seals to withstand seawater, the watches would let helium in & gradually equalise the internal & external pressures. All fine until they came up to the surface, when the watch would blow the crystal off, as the helium couldn't escape quickly enough to equalise. The Helium valve is there to release this pressure on ascent.
The sea dweller was designed as a highly specialised tool for a specialised industry, before becoming luxury item.