We present optical and near-infrared surface photometry of the Helix galaxy NGC 2685 and its two rings. We detected the inner (polar) ring in the near-infrared J-band and found that its colors are consistent with a normal initial mass function and an age of at most 5-6 Gyr. The inner ring is almost as red as the central galaxy suggesting that it is a long-lived structure. The central galaxy may be either an S0 or an E6/E7 galaxy and has a reddened nucleus. We have constructed gas-dynamical models of the inner self-gravitating ring in a variety of potentials and searched for long-lived models of both rings. These models indicate that the overall potential is either generally oblate-like triaxial or prolate-like triaxial in shape