This is exceptionally cool to me. But it's not something you get to subtly show off in public, it's going to (hopefully) involve a cheap watch, and therefore the "timeless functionality" appeal is gone.
But seriously, it doesn't have to be displayed with subtlety. Somebody offer OP $10K for this so you can use it as a paperweight on your desk.
Let’s go really pie in the sky, maybe some billionaire sees this (surely there’s some hanging out on hacker news) imagine them giving OP a $30,000 pocket watch owned by Ulysses S Grant or something and asking them to take that one of a kind art piece and encase it in resin. What would the pay rate be for such a project? The sky’s the limit, really.
Hand made pieces that only an expert could assemble are extremely expensive.