chmod without changing stat (atime) of file

i would like to be able to chmod a directory structure without changing the atime of those (files and) directories. if i start out with a file structure like $ tree test/ test/ ├── test1.txt └── text2.txt and list the atimes of the files and directories $ find test/ -exec stat --printf='name: %n atime: %x\n' {} \; name: test/ atime: 2019-02-28 11:28:24.418369586 +0100 name: test/text2.txt atime: 2019-02-28 11:28:03.609919183 +0100 name: test/test1.txt atime: 2019-02-28 11:27:58.101799544 +0100 and then chmod those with $ chmod -R 'u=Xrw,g=Xrw,o=Xr' test this changes the atimes of the directories (and yes, for good reasons); the mtimes remain unaffected: $ find test/ -exec stat --printf='name: %n atime: %x\n' {} \; name: test/ atime: 2019-02-28 11:38:30.590740343 +0100 name: test/text2.txt atime: 2019-02-28 11:28:03.609919183 +0100 name: test/test1.txt atime: 2019-02-28 11:27:58.101799544 +0100 is there a simple way to avoid that? i could of course write a script, that stores the atime before the modification and then resets it afterwards. but is there a simpler way?