Of Submariners and Saturation Dives

[Dark Side of The Loon]

One for the resident diving/Submariner experts...

Over time I have become aware of several instances of Rolex Submariners being used on saturation dives.

Note, this is not in reference to the helium-escape-valve equipped 5514s.

For example:

https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=672800 - a sales thread with a 16610 used on COMEX's Hydra 10 dive.

BBC's Real Men series did an episode on Saturation Divers (well worth a watch), and showed one of the divers with a sapphire crystal Submariner Date - not a Sea-Dweller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3BWSMrgi3I (Visible at 5:48->)

I thought that it was unwise to use watches with neither a HEV nor some other design meant to prevent the crystal popping off during decompression.

Anyone doing a saturation dive is going to be reasonably professional, and would surely use the correct equipment. Is it that, with the change to the sapphire crystal, the HEV is no longer necessary? Is it that the crystal popping off is actually a small and tolerable risk?

Minutiae yes, but that's what this hobby's about