The Renato tourbillon scam: a pictoral record.

Bringing this over, not to flame or bash, but in the interest of full disclosure to remind people what transpired with Renato under the stewardship of The MinkWeasel. I do not know if all those scammed ever got their money back or the alternate watches they were promised, or if there are any original purchasers still left in limbo, praying in vain that this vaporware might STILL someday see the light of day.

To my knowledge, no make-good, apology, or even simple addressing of the issue to those affected has ever occurred, either before or since the sale of the company to MZ Berger. I would imagine that the company just wants this incident to disappear entirely.

I originally posted this on several forums on Feb. 2, 2012.


Since some people are not familiar with the timing of the Renato tourbillon scam or what exactly was said or promised by The MinkWeasel, or when, I thought I'd put together a pictoral record of all of the emails that were sent out by Mink, along with two emails that went between the two of us.

The emails are exactly as sent and received. The only redaction I have done is to remove my own personal information.

By way of disclosure, I was one of the suckers that originally ordered one, on April 15, 2011. However, I saw the handwriting on the wall fairly quickly, and canceled my order 3.5 weeks later, on May 9. Even after I had canceled my order, Mink kept me on the email list for the tourbillon updates, so I have what I believe to be a pretty complete record of emails that Mink sent out.

I find it absolutely incredible that almost a year later, some people have still not canceled their order(s).

I think this insidious scam and how it was perpetrated deserves to be archived for people to see, and to be wary of this company, hence my doing this.

Note that in both a broadcast email and personally to me, Mink claims that there are multiple customers who actually received these tourbillons, yet to date not a single one has ever surfaced. The one supposedly photographed on Jim Skelton's wrist was a nonfunctional prototype.

As far as anyone can tell, these have never existed, nor ever will.








































And that was the last I ever received.

I was informed that everyone received their money back, a voucher and or a free watch. I'm not sure if that's accurate, but that seems to be the rumor at the Renato Geeks FB page.

This remains fascinating, even after three readings; thanks for posting it over here, Dorks.

From an innocent question from me to the ShopNBC Facebook page:

"ShopWatch at ShopNBC Hey Pete - Renato doesn't currently have a Tourbillon in production, however we will be bringing quite a few new pieces in the upcoming rotations that we're pretty excited about."

Does this mean anything?