I'd put that in the category of "healthy attributes."

Funny how a bad experience of this sort can lead you to better things! I haven't cracked open a solar watch yet, either (no need to, so far).

I salute your choice here...and that's saying something, given that there wasn't a hell of a lot in that era of TAG that I'd touch with a bargepole. You grabbed the stalk of wheat from the vast field of chaff.

This was the 1990s, where apparently you could hang a shingle outside your shop stating "Watchmaker on Premises", but this would amount to either some kid just trying to make a buck at something nobody else could be bothered with, or a very old guy who probably shoud've hung it up a decade previous, and neither had kept up with the intricacies of changing a battery in anything more sophisticated than a Timex Easy Reader. I'm not bitter about it (now)...it led me to seeking out some even more-wonderful stuff to put on the wrist.

In the last five years, I've had a bit of a turnaround regarding quartz, on a few levels. About 15 years ago, I abandoned quartz altogether - one of my last "nice" quartz watches, a very early-gen Citizen NaviHawk, was butchered by a so-called "watchmaker" changing out a battery. Shortly after that, a second watch - a Seiko Sports 100-series chronograph - suffered the same fate, but at different hands. Solar-powered watches were around, of course, but none of them appealed to me. I basically said "eff this, I'm going back to mechanicals...and not only that, but manual-wind only!"

I've actually written about this, but long-story-short, the manual-wind-only thing lasted roughly four years (no, they were decidedly not more trouble-free than automatics), and the no-quartz-watches-ever thing fell by the wayside a few years later, first with a Citizen Eco-Drive, then, when that watch was destroyed in a bad fall (I fared much better), I replaced it with a Casio Edifice EQS500-series, which I still own, and love. I then decided to modify my stance: fine, I'm cool with quartz again, but only solar powered numbers. This led to my adding the first digital quartz watch in decades: A Casio ProTrek PRG 330-1: tough as nails without being a G-Shock. (Nothing against G's, I just can't get jiggy with 'em.)

Then: in late 2022, I'm casually cruising watches on eBay (yep, dangerous if unsupervised), and spot a Seiko chronograph I'd never seen before, but whose overall case-shape I somehow recognized: the watch was part of their SUS line in the mid-to-late 1990s, which included a certain 4s15-powered field watch I'd lusted after, but didn't quite have the scratch for at the time. While that automatic movement would ascend in fame (and cost) over the years, this quartz chrono apparently got overlooked - I found a clean example for $165, which I made a $150 "make an offer" for, which was accepted, and it was mine. Thing is, this puppy took a conventional watch battery...no solar-anything. But I loved the thing, and still do.

So there you are: my collection is still mostly-mechanical/auto, but four quartz watches are in that bunch, and I'm quite glad they are.

For me, Seiko's been a "come for the value, stay for the quality and charm" choice, which is why I've circled back to the brand several times in the 40-plus years since I became "aware"of watches as more than just a utilitarian device. The fact that you can go as high-end as you'd like (and your bank balance can endure) also says a lot about the brand, and I find it rather amusing how some folks slag Seiko for having "nothingburger" basic movements, but wax ecstatic over the microbrand du jour with the same movement dutifully ticking away beneath the dial.

As I always say: wear what suits your fancy - there's a ton of great watches out there, from so many sources...possibly the most in recent times.

I got mine from here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223476468869?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=aJJeMwg0Q7m&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=BFeqXS6xTq6&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY