Quality Movements With Parts Available???

[les13]

I am sure this question has been asked before, but it is a question that could be asked in many different ways.  Anyway, I did not find anything from searching.

My primary interest is American made wrist watches made before the '60's.  I am a newbie and have been buying cheep Hamilton, Elgin, etc. movements and trying to repair them.  If I need a part, they can sometimes be difficult to find.  I started out in Mark's classes with the Seagull 6498 clones.  If I broke a part, which I did regularly, it was difficult to find replacements.  My question is what are your recommendations for reasonably priced watches in which parts are generally readily available.  Of course, I am looking for mechanical watches with minimal complications.  Movements that would be suitable for a newbie to tackle.  Is there such an animal?  I am not looking for cheap movements, but I would like to keep a sanity check on how much money I spend on this hobby.

Thanks for your help.

[Klassiker]

I can't recommend any American movements, but there are a lot of Swiss or German ones from the 50s or 60s which we're made in large quantities and for which you can easily and cheaply find spares or donors. They we're built to be serviced too, which makes them fun to work on. I'm thinking AS, Osco, FHF/Standard, Peseux etc.

[Nucejoe]

You can always find ST96 (mumbi special) from India, since they still are made in India and widely used there. 

You can get two watches for the price of a seagul movement.

I think the reason Mark uses seagul is wide availability and newness, so you wont be spending more time on finding a movement and cleaning than actual learning of the lessons.

ST96 in manual wind, easy to work on, yet higher quality than chinese.

Should expect a home made dial in the case though.