There's two sides to every argument like this. Though in this case those that say it's pointless to buy an automatic unless you're spending a lot of dollar have less of a leg to stand on given that many movements out there today found on circa £500 watches (I guess you could say mostly microbrands) are very reliable and accurate. The vast majority on sale today will be running a Base ETA, Miyota or Sellita movement (unless it's a Seiko
).
If you don't want to have to wear your watch for at least 8 hours a day then you will more than likely find you need to manually wind it as most power reserves are 42 hours in automatics. A quartz will also be more accurate than the average auto (cosc certified or not) and accuracy variation can be vast between autos, even the same movement on the same watch. My ETA now gains around 1 second a day but the Miyota still gains 2.5. Both within tolerances but my old quartz never gained or list a second in months...
If you can't see yourself taking to that kind of routine then there are plenty of good quality quartz watches out there and they vary in price and quality, just like an auto but let's get one thing clear, just because a watch costs say £300, that doesn't mean it will be "povvo", auto/quartz or otherwise!
Choose sonetbing you like, see if it's acceptably priced and see if they offer different movements and make a choice.
