Nikon has used the "countdown" approach to product announcement before, most notably with the infamous Df, but also with the Nikon Z System itself. I suspect that Nikon is still shell-shocked from the aftershocks from those countdowns. They used teaser videos that hinted at some vague aspects of those upcoming products, and then got shellacked in social media afterwards when people were disappointed by something in the actual announcement.
Why do I say that? Because this time we only have gotten a countdown timer, plus some emails and social media pointing to the timer. Tick, tick. Tock, tock. Nikon's got a clock.
Is Nikon marketing really going to let everyone just fantasize for two weeks? Apparently so. There's not even something vague being said (i.e. "You wanted changes and improvements. We listened. Here they come."). Okay, I suppose that "the next chapter" says something. But it also says nothing.
I'll write it again: marketing is about setting expectations. The only expectation Nikon marketing has set is that there will be a launch event soon. That's a pretty low bar.
I hope that there are local embargoed events scheduled prior to the actual one—especially considering how inconvenient the actual timing is for the US and Europe, which is half or more of their customer base—as just dropping everything at once is risky given the YouTuber-type commenters looking to get clicks, and tending to exaggerate or distort things when let to their own devices. But I wouldn't know if there's a local embargoed pre-event here in the US, as NikonUSA continues to pretend I don't exist.
So I sit watching the counter, just like you do. Tick, Tock, my that's a boring clock.
Oh, and one other thing: If you go to the NikonUSA site's front page, "The Next Chapter" doesn't actually mention Z. That's going to get some thinking that Nikon will tell us about the DSLR future, too.
