# Seiko H556-5050 'burke'



## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

I picked up a second Seiko *H556-5050* this week. This watch is referred to as a 'Burke' as it was worn by Carter Burke in the movie Aliens.

It was listed as fully working with wear, but when it arrived the 8pm pusher wasn't working.



So, time to strip it down and clean it up. Taking the back off reveals:



not too bad - though disappointingly missing the green plastic spacer. :down:

Finding a replacement won't be easy.

Pushers out:



and its clear what's stopping them working:



lots of dust, dirt and DNA.


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## tixntox (Jul 17, 2009)

Wrist cheese!  Not for the faint hearted! :stop:

Mike


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Now, in order to clean the case we need to remove not only the crown, movement and pushers but also the tachy ring.

On this model, this means removing the crystal.

This presents a problem, because the crystal needs to be pushed out. But because the tachy ring has a bar running horizontally across the top third, the area that you can push against is much less than the area of the crystal:



Here's me using the largest die that I have that fits:



and you can already see what happens. Yep:



which with a little more pressure does get the crystal(s) out:



in my experience this is inevitable and to be expected.

So, either:

1 - make a custom die (though I'm not convinced this would work)

or

2 - make sure you've got a new crystal ready.

I went with option 2. :wink2:


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

After cleaning away all those flakes of glass (which don't seem sharp btw), I gave the case, pushers, crown and bracelet a jolly good clean in the ultrasonic bath, then a spruce up with my trusty dual purpose ultrasonic toothbrush (must remember to swap the heads back before bedtime!!).



I just love the way these stainless pushers clean up. :thumbup:



and the crown (which is bent - so a replacement stem and crown are on order).

Then it was back in with the tachy ring, crystal gasket and time to fit this:



and then back in with the movement:


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## stradacab (Nov 15, 2006)

Keep us updated, great pics


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Back:



and front:



and a test of all the buttons and the alarm.

Yep - everything is working. :yes:

The final job was to clean up and size the bracelet. Now luckily a few months ago I'd bought a bracelet for this model for the princely sum of Â£3.20. It only had one removable link on each side, but was in much better condition than the bracelet that came with this watch.

But happily the bracelet the watch came with had lots of removable links, and 4 of them had been hidden under the clasp and therefore protected (don't you just love it when you see this!!).

So, it was an easy job to make one good bracelet from the two.

Now, given that both had had comprehensive cleaning (or so I thought), I was amazed to find this much crud under those removable links:



Yuck!!


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

I haven't updated this thread 'till now as I've been waiting for a Cousins order to arrive to finish the job. The postie called today so its update time.

When I put the watch back together, I noticed that the crown wasn't working as it should. The first click position was working sometimes, then sometimes not. Hmmmm.

A closer inspection of the stem indicated what the problem was. Here's the original stem:



and here's a new one:



you can see the wear that has happened.

So, I needed a new stem, and at the same time I ordered a new crown.

This meant that today I had to do something I've not done before - cut a stem down to the correct size.

Instead of actually cutting, I opted for grinding it down using this:



(no, not Thunderbird 1)



and this.

I found that doing it this way gave me very fine control over the length. I held the stem in my fingers, stopping when it got hot!!

Here it is cut to length:


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

I read various topics on both cutting the stem to length and fixing the stem to the crown. Some said to use superglue, some threadloc and others nothing at all.

I opted for this:



which is a nice green colour:



Once I'd let it dry I popped it back in:



and gave it a jolly good test. All functions A-OK.

And here's a wrist shot:



which given that I stayed up 'till about 01:45 this morning watching Aliens seems quite appropriate. :yes:


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## Davey P (Sep 9, 2010)

Excellent result, that looks great mate :thumbup:


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## chris.ph (Dec 29, 2011)

very nice job :thumbup:


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## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

Holy thread resurrection Batman!

Forgive me @Sir Alan, but did you notice any problems with the watch before to saw the stem damage? I have just picked one of these up and I have the analogue part working fine, but when I pull the crown out to set the LCD panel the panel just fades out. With the crown fully in the display flashes all the time.

It'd be nice to save this one, as it is on the original bracelet (even gunkier than yours!) and has the original green spacer


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## lewie (Dec 7, 2010)

Have you cleaned the battery terminal and tried a new battery?


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Hi Scott,

all I can suggest is that the movement is stripped down. They are very fiddly, being a sandwich of both plastic and metal parts and don't like battery leak.

Is there any evidence of either battery leak or rust in yours?


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## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

lewie said:


> Have you cleaned the battery terminal and tried a new battery?


 Yes, and the analogue side is working fine so it isn't a power source issue



Sir Alan said:


> Hi Scott,
> 
> all I can suggest is that the movement is stripped down. They are very fiddly, being a sandwich of both plastic and metal parts and don't like battery leak.
> 
> Is there any evidence of either battery leak or rust in yours?


 Nope, looks alright from the outside. The battery clamp was missing a screw, but it is the exact same screw yours looks to be missing too from the first photo. I need to find another pic now to see if that is right or wrong!


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

All screws are required as they ensure (when correctly tightened) that electrical contact is made where required. There is also a clip at the top of the movement (assuming the LCD panel is at the top) that needs to be correctly engaged with the plastic tab of the mainplate - this ensures that the two zebra strips that drive the LCD panel are in contact with the PCB.

If your movement is missing the screw by the battery terminal then this might be the simple cause of the problem.


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## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

As with anyone with a number of Seikos, I have a supply of donor movements! I took a screw from a spare movement to hold the battery clamp down. Just the same. I'll remove the stem and have more of a play when I get the chance.

I suspect that the contact when pulling the stem out is dirty or stuck in position, leaving an open circuit so the watch stops


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## claydawg (Aug 1, 2018)

Sorry to use this to message Sir Alan, but it says you cannot receive messages.

I was reading your post from a few years back and am having a similar problem with my Navisail, however nothing works. I was wondering if you would be interested in fixing it for a fee. Citizen does not make any parts for it, and all of the watch repair shops won't touch it.

http://xflive.thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?/topic/86649-citizen-c320-movement-fix/&do=embed


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## WatchForumID (Oct 16, 2021)

Howdy,

Message for Sir Alan. I just joined the forum to ask but it doesn't let me DM as a newb.

I lost my father last year, and inherited an H556 baby Arnie. Seems to look pretty good - no sign of a battery leak that I can see. However, the alarm isn't working. The pushers are quite stiff as well. Any advice? Are you in the H556 restoration business? If no, recommendations in the states? That fella in Colorado is booked way out. Spencer Klein is booked far into the future, and I'm not even sure he works on A/D.

Thanks in advance!



WatchForumID said:


> Howdy,
> 
> Message for Sir Alan. I just joined the forum to ask but it doesn't let me DM as a newb.
> 
> ...


 @Sir Alan


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## Sir Alan (Sep 10, 2010)

Hi,

just seen this post.

I have sent you a message - hopefully you receive it.


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