Should Omega update the SMP and remove the helium escape valve?

I would prefer it did not have it, but it is part of the legacy at this point.

#wruw

It adds a unique element tot the design.

Oh man, are you actually saying in public, that you're never going to dive deep enough to need the essential helium escape valve😱😂🤣

Blasphemy. 😀

I think Omega should take a page out of Tudor’s playbook. The full fat Pelagos is still around and has a helium escape valve (albeit without the ugly wart). But Tudor introduced the Pelagos 39 without the valve and less depth rating (200 instead of 300).

Omega can do something similar. Keep the SMP around just as it is with the ugly valve for the purists that love it. But introduce a lifestyle model with less hardcore dive features and call it simply “Seamaster” or “Seamaster 200” and lower the depth rating and remove the valve but keep the rest of the design elements and bring down the size to 39mm. There would be a huge market for a variant like this!

I’d like to see them update the bracelet.

Yup, this is the answer.

While I wish it wasn't where it is & protruding, it unmistakably says SMP

Before WatchCrunch I never knew this was a problem. I just accepted the watch for what it is. Simpler times…

I like and respect the HEV as a design gesture, continuity with previous SMP watches. It is also my entirely personal opinion that had Omega developed a bracelet comparable to the Rolex Oyster with simple refinements over the years they would never have lost a fair fight against a latecomer watch opponent that now dominates the medium luxury tier of Swiss watches.

Plenty of people are buying them, so there is clearly enough people out there who don't mind it, or actually like it.

But, like any forum on the internet, the complainers shout loudly about what they don't like, while the people who are happy just enjoy the SMP without needing to post regularly about how much they like it.

IMO, it's part of its DNA and there are plenty of 300m Dive watches available without the protruding HEV, so why not buy one of those instead?

I think that the Seamaster 300 without its Helium valve would not be the Omega Seamaster 300

This would be a much less of an i hate it/I like it discussion with a comparison of what the current Seamaster Diver looks like with or without the HEV, so I took the liberty of doing a quick-and-dirty edit:

To me - this is a classic example of the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The SMD-edit is visually unbalanced to me, there’s too much visual weight on the left. The HEV isn’t just a 10 o’clock appendix - it provides visual weight to balance the watch. In other words - take the HEV out, and you need to redo the entire watch.

Could Omega shrink it to the size of the HEV on the prior generation SMP? Sure, but I don’t think it’d work. The biggest distinction between the SMP and SMD is that the latter is far more visual impactful, despite being not significantly bigger (that’s not a selling point to me - I prefer my SMP GMT). A smaller HEV would not serve the same visual balancing act as the existing one.

And Omega did hear people’s cries to get rid of the HEV - it’s called the Seamaster Heritage. You’ll notice the lack of crown guards and a smaller crown overall on the SMH line compared to the SMP, which give the SMH a more symmetrical look.

Gotta have it, it's a crucial part of its identity!

I went for the alternative, not because of the He valve but because it's more understated

I love mine, wouldn’t change a thing.

Get rid of every helium escape valve on every watch. It’s a “feature” useful for 300ish saturation divers in the United States, who probably don’t wear a dive watch anyway. For everyone else it’s marketing claptrap or cosplay, which just adds expense, complication, and an additional point of potential failure.

While I agree with you on the uselessness of the feature, so is having a depth rating over 100m for the very few of us who dive (and that does not include me) because the recreational dive certification limit is 40m (any deeper and you need to account for decompression stops and would probably need a dive computer).

That being said, I'm a hypocrite (and a cosplayer) because I also steer away from 100m "divers". All of my Dive watches have to have at least 200-300m depth ratings for all the decompression diving that I never do.

I don't have a watch with a helium escape valve (yet) but the Walter Mitty in me wants one (I think I prefer the term Walter Mitty to cosplayer).

Is it even a SMP without it?

Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce the Omega Seamaster GMT 50th Anniversary reference 2534.50.00. For all the haters, the wart has been removed. To me, it looks a bit odd without it. Like something is missing… but I absolutely love those sword hands. If only they would bring back those beautiful sword hands🤔….

Don't like it.... Send it to the bin

Not the old ones

In terms of thickness

I’m on team “never get rid of the HEV” lol

Gotta keep it, it's a signature of the watch.

My biggest problem is the thickness more than anything. I can tolerate the bracelet but it could use refinement. SMP and PO are needlessly thick. Also time for a SMP GMT again.

It's part of the watches look. You start slicing off iconic parts and it's no longer that watch.

No because I feel it's part of its identity. Without it, it looks like an Aqua Racer from afar.

Non factor for me. I love my diver. Beautiful watch.

I was looking if someone had posted this. I call BS on all those people saying they would pick it in a heartbeat because of this watch. It "fixes" everything that is "wrong" with the SMP, like the skeleton hands and Helium escape valve. One can even get the old Speedmaster-style bracelet for it.

Given the number of complaints, this should be incredibly popular. It isn't. Getting rid of the valve, hands or bracelet which have become distinctive features would therefore be a HUGE mistake as it would be break the lineage of the only Seamaster with any kind of continuity whatsoever.

Preach on…PREACH!!!! I personally love the wart. I prefer the sword hands but it’s not a deal breaker for me