This is incredible... hats off to the maker. That being said I really wish that the Chinese ETA 2824-2 clone that is the PT5000 would see more action in place of Seiko movements. It's more accurate, runs at 4Hz, and isn't too far off in terms of cost (last I checked - I could be wrong as regards bulk orders). Then again I don't know whether it can be modded to be "open heart" a la the NH38 so it might not have been appropriate for this project in particular.
Damn yeah, you guys are all on the money. I was thinking of an ETA clone or Sellita. As well as the Miyota 90S5 which was a really odd pick from
ghostganz because I don't think its that popular of a movement. But I was looking at it as I had 0.5mm less height than Seiko's recommended minimum height within the case, and the 90S5 was much thinner. Ended up with the NH38 anyway because I was really REALLY unsure if I could even get this to work so it was a lower monetary investment. And, the stem shape worked for the weirdo linkages I made, because the linkage I made is technically within the footprint of all those movements.
And had to be open heart 1. because I liked how the mockup I did looked with an open heart and 2. because any more stem positions for different complication settings would have made my life a lot harder with getting the button/crown to work
I was thinking that about the movement too -- or you could go for a Miyota/Citizen, the high-beat (28800) movements were around $70-80 on ebay the last time I checked.