Bond SMP 2531.80 Automatic vs 2541.80 Quartz: Which to Keep

TL;DR - I’m keeping one Seamaster Professional 300m for daily wear, should it be the 2531.80 automatic or the 2541.80 quartz?

A few months ago I posted a thread asking for opinions as to whether the 41mm Omega Seamaster Professional 300m fit my ~7 inch wrist. After a few months of deliberation I finally decided I wanted the 41mm Seamaster to be my daily watch.

Now I have a second dilemma: I own two 41mm SMP’s from the 90s, the automatic 2531.80 and the quartz 2541.80. I plan to make one my daily wear watch and the other will be sold. I’d like to get opinions here even though I think I know what the advice will be. As background, both watches have been fully serviced in the last year with new dials, bezels, hands, crowns, and gaskets installed. Yes, I even had the dials replaced as I wanted an SMP as new as possible.

My head says keep the quartz 2541.80 that was worn by Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye. It’s accurate (running +4 seconds per MONTH). It’s also durable, is always set to the right time, is always set to the right date, and has the jumping hour hand for traveling different time zones or handling a daylight savings time change. It’s still a Bond watch (which is meaningless to many but important to me).

My heart says keep the automatic 2531.80. It has even more Bond credibility as it was worn by Brosnan in the three Bond movies after GoldenEye. Perhaps most importantly, I feel like I’d have to turn in my watch enthusiast card if I wore a quartz watch every day. Watch enthusiasts wear mechanical watches! It would be a like car driving enthusiast choosing an automatic transmission over manual for a sports car.

I will add this detail, keeping both is not an option I’m going to choose. I’m trying to reduce the amount of stuff I own so having both is counter to that—especially when the watches are visually nearly identical. I want to choose one watch and wear it nearly every day. I should also add that if I chose the quartz SMP I still have other mechanical watches I can wear, such as my favorite watch, the Longines Conquest Heritage Limited Edition 1954-2014, which is 35mm with an acrylic crystal. But given that most days I’m wearing casual short sleeves (I live in Arizona), a 35mm dress watch is not an ideal choice for every day wear. I will also say that resale value of the two watches is not a consideration. This is about simplifying my collection and my life--it's not an economic necessity.

So what’s your opinion? Can I still be in the cool kids club if I wore a quartz watch every day? Should I choose nostalgia over practicality? I’d love hear what other OF members say.

Pictures would help, but am I correct in thinking they share the exact same design?

Does the slimmer profile of the quartz, vs the heavier slightly thicker auto mean anything to you. That could be a factor.

As fkr the auto v quartz in general if we're effectively looking at the same watch, to me thee days it wouldn't really matter, both have their for and against. 10 years ago I'd have been mechanical every day of the week, but as I've gotten older I'm really not fussed and will happily wear either, although I do own more mechanical still.

Good luck.

The two are visually identical with these exceptions: (1) the automatic has the word "Chronometer" on the 6 o'clock side of the dial (quartz is 3 lines of text on the bottom, auto is 4 lines of text); 2) the quartz ticks one time per second and the auto is 8 ticks per second--or 28,800 vibrations per hour; (3) the auto measures 11.7mm thick, the quartz measures 11.3mm thick. The only difference is in the caseback thickness, the midcase and bezel is the same for both.

While the quartz is technically thinner, they are both on the thin side for a 300m diver and on the wrist the difference is basically unnoticeable. For me, any dive watch under 13mm is perfectly acceptable. I once owned the 2220.80 SMP that is 12.8mm and that was perfectly fine for me in terms of thickness.

I'd keep the mechanical version over quartz every single time. Pretty sure I'd never even acquire the quartz version unless someone gifted it to me.😀