I was tasked with putting together, in the best case, a pocketwatch which sould let one view the movement and also being resistant to potential drops, squishing it between stuff like drawers and or even accidentally stepping on it. “If you want a resistent watch you dont pick a pocket watch” has been said to me but those are the specific requirements for a 400 budget pocket watch.
How feasable would it be to find a movement, a case and dial that lets one see the movement work and have it be resistent enough to be worn, as a daily driver, by someone who works in transport/storage enviroment?
The main shortcoming, in terms of durability, of pocket watches were water resistance and lack of shock protection. Both of these are easily solved now with screw together cases, gaskets, and antishock devices.
As others have said, Tissot makes pocket watches that pretty much fit the bill.
One thing I don’t think I’ve seen on modern pocket watches which I think would be interesting if you wanted to up the resisyance a bit would be a screw down crown. You also rarely see them in steel cases. But, this could easily be done. Take basically any modern ETA/Unitas cal 6497/6498 based watch design, delete ths lugs, add a threaded case tube and screw down crown, add a suspension bow, and you’d have a burly modern pocket watch.
Tissot still makes pocket watches that almost fit your requirements, some models for example being skeletonized with display caseback and 100m water resistance but its not under 400 dollars
Watches of far lower quality than anything available today survived artillery fire in the trenches of WW1. Someone working in transport probably spends their day sitting in a truck or forklift, which isn’t anything hazardous for a watch.