Save a couple bucks with Quartz?

You'll miss out on much bonding from re-setting the time. Plus you don't get to buy a watch winder or meet a watchmaker.

I've been in the game for many years and have owned a lot of automatics at every level. Quartz too. At the start of my watch obsession I simply bought whatever the hell I liked and thought looked good. Then I got all the schooling out of the way and with a degree and a job, and more money I got more serious (I thought) and went through  Tag, Breitling, chopard, and Omega stage. Gradually I started selling and buying and finally realized that I was on a fools errand.The internet and forums came along and I realized that I was , subliminally' being influenced by what others had.

Fast forward to now and I prefer microbrand autos and quartz watches.  My watches are worn for the sole purpose of my pleasure and expectations and I no longer give a crap about "Luxury" brands. At the end of the day they just sit in the watch box while I enjoy my CWC Military Quartz, my Armitron Rubik, my Timexes, Hamiltons, and other fine watches that won't break the bank.

Solar maybe, but quartz watches lack soul.  Totally subjective,  and possibly unbalanced, but I can't connect to them.  

Some people think quartz lacks soul. That’s the biggest critique you will hear. However, some cheaper quartz movements also don’t last long. You will get less life after a battery change and eventually a cheaper quartz watch will quit working. The longer you keep a quartz movement, the more difficult it may be to find the proper battery as well. 
 

With great mechanicals, they can last forever with servicing. Quartz watches tend to be a bit more disposable, especially when they have cheaper quartz movements. However, high end quartz like in Grand Seiko will last a long time. You can also do the battery changes yourself fairly easily by buying some fairly cheap equipment from a place like esslinger. 
 

Bottom line, buy what you like. It’s up to you to decide if you like quartz movements.  Don’t let what other people think bother you. 

If two watches were identical, other than automatic versus quartz, I would take the quartz 8 days a week!

Here's an example:

SBGR315 automatic - $4,700

SBGP009 quartz - $2,600

Yes, to the more accurate and robust quartz, and the savings of $2,100!!!

Buy what you like but…

Many who enjoy watches, admire the micro engineering aspect of what makes a watch work. There is something fascinating about the construction of a watch via gears, springs, and weight. Not to mention the finishing. A device that can run years without a battery or power source? Imagine any other mechanical device claiming that? That’s the piece missing with Quartz or smart watches. That is a big reason many watch fans tend to also enjoy cars. I mainly have mechanical based pieces, but love a 9F.

Now, not all collectors collect for the same reason. There is no wrong way to collect. If you strictly like aesthetics, have at it, you’ll save a lot. 

Edit, how cheap was that Hammy? Without much effort, one could get an auto khaki field for less than $350.

I love the workings of an automatic, but have issues with the daily time gain or loss. Even the least accurate quartz is vastly more accurate. But I do seek jeweled quartzes often found in older watches. Unless of course, like @foghorn, I‘m rocking my fantastic Armitron Rubik. 

I decided on buying a quartz Cartier Tank instead of the mecanique with precious metals. I really wanted the latter just because I wanted a precious metal watch,  not because of its handwinding legacy, which honestly i couldn’t care less. I wear the watch, the watch doesn’t wear me. Its always working to serve me.… plus i saved thousands of dollars with the more accurate and robust quartz! Win win :)

I'm 100% agree that quartz is more simple and accurate. But, we are in this "hobby" not because of simple and accurate right? 🤔

I prefer quartz for the accuracy and ease of just being able to pick up and go without faffing about setting the time/date and winding. Also as for servicing the price of that can be ridiculously expensive and you could have got a new watch. Also I find myself checking the time on my mechanical watches quite often during the day just to see how much they are out, not that it's much but it's still nowhere as good as even the cheapest quartz. As for a mechanical's soul I find that a bit bizarre but each to there own

I've bought the quartz version of a watch before and it was for the simple reason that I wouldn't be wearing the watch all that often. When I did want to wear it, I wanted a grab and go scenario (it was a no date watch), and so it was a no-brainer to save some cash on something I wouldn't be wearing often, and have the perfect grab and go watch in the process. To me, that was the most logical scenario.

Quartz all day long for me. Although I have mechanical watches, too, they don't get worn very much.

There is, for me, only one down side to quartz watches. They have so much soul that sometimes it spills out and makes an unsightly mess. Watchmakers call this the Quartz Soul Decant. 

That journey of yours sounds very familiar. I think many people have been influenced by the idea that a watch collector only collects autos. And you gotta have a rolex. As many rolexes as you can hoard

I don’t buy the whole “quartz doesn‘t last/quartz is disposable” line. I have 4 of my fathers quartz watches from the mid 1980s (3 Longines, 1 Citizen) and 3 more from the early 1990s (2 Tags and 1 Hamilton) and alll of them are working fine with nothing more than battery changes. As for being disposable, I have disposed of just as many cheap autos as cheap quartz over the years that would have cost more than they were worth to fix. So to me it’s just another WIS myth that gets repeated but has no data to support it.

As for not buying quartz, @MegaBob nailed it. A second hand that misses the marks, and/or a noticeable wobble, that’s a quartz deal breaker.

I buy watches for different use cases.  Quartz makes a lot of sense for a grab-and-go, so I always travel with a quartz gmt in my bag (GS 9F) when I travel.  Quartz are naturally very tough beaters and I use them for motorcycling, etc.  Otherwise, automatics are my preferred choice.  I also have a set of cheap automatics and quartz for travelling, expensive for safe places and cheap for less safe places.  

I love both quartz and mechanical movements and have both in my collection, but I am not sure I would go as far as to say I prefer the lower priced quartz alternative. Rather, I love quartz because it provides so many additional options for watchmaking. Solar power from numerous brands, including Seiko, Casio, Timex, and the famous Citizen Eco-Drive, Seiko Kinetic, Grand Seiko Spring Drive, Bulova Accutron (now the independent Accutron subsidiary), Bulova Precisionist, Longines VHP, and widely available digital and analog-digital models are some of the watches possible because of quartz movements. The first movements released by Fine Timepiece Solutions are quartz; the Ameriquartz movements. Here are some of my favorite quartz movement watches.

And the one I am wearing today.

There are more, this is just a small selection.

If I'm buying luxury, I probably would spend extra for the mechanical. No rhyme or reason, but then, when is there ever reason in this hobby? I'd spend more for a manual gearbox as well

I wouldn't bother to service a cheap mechanical movement, at the lower end of the spectrum I'd go quartz, but also depends on what you look for in watches, if you care more about how it looks and their ability to tell time and not the movements then yeah, go quartz and save yourself the money.

It's also funny how people will tell you quartz have no soul, but then have 12 g-shocks.

I started getting interested in watches about a year ago. Soon after I discovered a box with 4 quarts watches that I hadn't worn them in 10+ years (since I bought the first iphone). None are expense. Swatch etc. Some are probably 25 years old at this point. 

So I put in new batteries, set them and threw them back in the draw.

I came across them again last week. They are all within a minute of the correct time.

So, if reliability and maintenance costs are important I'd lean towards the quartz. 

I suspect you'll end up with different watches with different movements. So it probably wouldn't hurt to opt for the quartz if the watches are otherwise identical.

As an aside, I have a quartz watch that's accurate to 5 seconds a year. I use it as my reference watch to set all my olde worlde watches. 

When I look at it I'm always taken how gorgeous it is. And how amazing the technology is. 

I have mentioned the soul issue, above. Very instructive it is too.

I’m telling ya…your Citizen vintage digital…I’m so fascinated with it!

I‘m with you on the manual gearbox for sure!

What was the difference in price?

My interest in watches stemmed from a fascination with the mechanics of them, and therefore I tend to prefer mechanical watches over quartz. I enjoy quartz watches that offer something unique, but if I'm faced with an option of a watch with a pedestrian quartz movement compared to the exact same watch with a good quality mechanical movement, I'll lean towards the mechanical version, even if there is a reasonable price premium.

I do appreciate the "grab and go" nature of quartz watches, however I enjoy the ritual of setting the time and winding my mechanical pieces. I'm rarely in such a hurry when selecting a watch for the day that I can't take the 60 seconds out of my day to do that. Also, without some sort of end of life indicator for the battery, there is always the possibility that the battery in a quartz watch could die at an inopportune time, and result in you being late for an appointment (speaking from experience).

I have nothing against quartz watches (3 of the 4 watches I've purchased this year were quartz), but I have a string preference towards mechanical.  None of the quartz watches that I have in my collection have a corresponding mechanical option, so I've never been directly faced with the option of choosing between a quartz or mechanical version of the same watch. If I were faced with a decision between two otherwise identical watches, my selection would depend on the price premium involved, and the movements themselves. I always like saving money, but price isn't usually the main factor in my decision making process for items like watches that I'm not buying strictly for their utility.

I'm having trouble finding quartz watches that I really want (even though I realize they are absolutely superior for my usage patterns).  I had a Scurfa for a little while last winter that was almost perfect, but my new "no 3:00 crowns" rule is making it hard.

Although I have several mechanical watches, I  appreciate the value and reliability of a nice quartz watch.  I wear a Longines Hydroconquest quartz 90% of the time and would not be as upset if something catastrophic happened to it over the more expensive auto version.  I am not a fan of the idea amongst watch collectors that you cant have a "nice" watch if it is quartz.