Mr. Adams, rather bad form to be speaking in such a condescending manner about your readers/fans. Glad that John stood up, a bit, for his meeting.

I do wonder how many of the 'haute' watches you viewed on the wrists of the 'art' people in Bal Harbour were indeed replicas.

Slightly depressing that John doesn't appear to understand how a Spring Drive movement works.  It's a full mechanical watch that additionally runs a quartz-regulator.  It's like a referee at a boxing match that makes sure the bout doesn't get out of control, while not actually boxing himself.  Here's my reasoning.  Part of the power in the mainspring is used to generate a miniscule amount of current - we're probably talking micro-watts here.  This trickle of power has to operate a quartz crystal and IC, and also provide a degree of magnetic force to control the rate at which the mainspring delivers power to turn the hands.  I must stress that this is a tiny amount of power.  The way the watch drives the hands via purely mechanical means must therefore be very finely tuned to be at least somewhat accurate, so that the very weak influence of the magnetic brake is enough to bring it within 'accurate' specs.  Even without the quartz regulator this isn't a watch that would unwind rapidly within a few seconds like a cheap clockwork toy.  It is complex, innovative and in a way, beautiful (even if the designs often don't do justice to the beauty inside).  It doesn't have a traditional escapement, but there are other watches that don't and they're still regarded as 'true' mechanical watches. 

Imagine if you went to take your watch to get regulated at a workshop now and then using an electronic timing machine.  Now imagine that that timing machine were miniaturised and placed inside the watch case, and that it regulated your watch constantly.  That's essentially what happens in a spring drive movement.  In order for that regulation to be possible without human intervention the escapement is different, but there are many different types of escapement.  That one type is more frequently used than others doesn't make the others any less significant as valid solutions to the problem of managing mechanical power.