Seiko & Citizen Watch Forum Message Archive

It can accumulate over multiple compressions and decompressions. But two points about this...

1.) Based on everything I've read, an SAT diver does their job over a period of time continuously at depth. They are not going through constant cycles of decompressing and compressing. That would be very inefficient and potentially increase the chance for danger.

They can be "at depth" for weeks at a time and naturally the longer they are living in the SAT chamber, the more chance there is of Helium getting into the watch.

2.) It is completely okay for some Helium to build up in the Seikos. They are designed to take pressure from the inside as well as the outside. The screw down xtal retaining ring is there to prevent inside pressure from popping that xtal off.

When the helium gets in, it gets out the same way...just slowly seeps out until pressure is equalized. There is no magic gasket or controlled path for seepage.

I've said it before and I'll say it again..if you spend some time hanging out on heavy duty dive boards, do research on SAT diving, and even email guys who do it, you'll see that helium buildup is not a big deal to most of these guys...it's desk diver folks like ourselves who obsess over it. I've read numerous accounts of guys who lived in SAT chambers with G shocks and they had no problems whatsoever.

The problems associated with helium buildup in watches started way back at a time when watches weren't built nearly as well as they are now.

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