I bought a Black Spotmatic II the same year in the UK. They were both released in 1971. The price between the silver models was only about £25 and I'm sure they were all MIJ at that time. Oddly the Spotmatic II wasn't sold in Japan until 1974.

Later it would seem that even some the Spotmatic II and SP1000 were made or assembled in Hong Kong so I'm sure the SP500 would have been as well, even though people on the web don't seem to have picked this up properly. This site:
http://www.mail-archive.com/pdml@pdml.net">target="blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/pdml@pdml.net/msg66254.html
mentions a SP1000 assembled in Hong Kong.

This site
http://www.mail-archive.com/pdml@pdml.net">target="blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/pdml@pdml.net/msg297361.html
mentions lenses made in Taiwan.

Because some Spotmatics were (at the end of their lives) being assembled in Hong Kong it would be logical for the K1000 to also be assembled there, because it was a budget model. All information on the web though seems to point initially to Japan, so the magazine article/test I read may have been inaccurate.

There is some doubt over whether the SP500 and SP1000 should be called Spotmatics. They don't have the word Spotmatic on the front like the others do, but Pentax have always been strange with Camera names

Quite a lot of Pentax cameras don't seem to have any mention of Japan on them: Mx, MEF, Super-A etc. It re-appeared on the SFX.

Edit: Sorry the forum software won't accept the links.
You may need to copy and paste into your browser.

Isn't the DxOMark sensor test any use. Obviously the K-5 hasn't been done yet. link

The K7 comes out worse than the K20D and K-x

Anyone using 200ISO instead of 100ISO on a K20D could be losing almost 1 stop of DR

I think that was later Hefty. They had a pile and I mean pile (about 1m x 1m x1m) of them in Macro in plain white boxes circa 1978/80 (£29.95+VAT) and I would think they were made by a subcontractor. The coloured lettering wasn't even Pentax like.

It's a mm shorter

That explains it!!!! A local Pentax dealer had a white K-m on one of those rubber sucker pods in his window, advertising the pod for over a year and I thought it strange that he risked it falling with such a valuable camera on it and why tie the money up for a demo of a cheap support. It must have been a worthless dummy!!!

Would be handy to wave around in front of security guards jobsworths etc.
"Who me I'm just pretending I have a real camera"

I always thought from what I read/heard they were made in China, but I can't find anything confirming that on the web, so I'm not sure. They did however have the following:

1973: The company opens its first foreign manufacturing plant
in Hong Kong.

1975: A manufacturing plant in Taiwan is opened.

Source:
http://www.answers.com/topic/pentax-corporation

So what were they making there? They could also have
used sub-contractors in China.

I think your complicating this far too much especially bringing in audio.

The number of colours you have does not increase the dynamic range. It might make it possible to measure it more accurately, between the lowest and highest, but who's interested in measuring the DR to 0.00001 of a stop anyway.

In it's simplest form a B&W bitmap has two RGB colours 0,0,0 and 255,255,255. You could convert these to 24 bit values but it wouldn't change the range.

The same would be true of a simple grey 3 colour bitmap with 127,127,127 as mid grey (that's not its true value just an illustration). You could record these in a bitmap file with just 3 possible values... or you could convert to 24 bit, but the visual values would remain the same. And if you had a camera that just read the three zone values it wouldn't improve the dynamic range no matter how many bits were recorded they still convert back to the original three.

The cameras probably one of the original K1000's (first batch?) it has AOC and Asahi on it which later ones didn't. Some people claim that the first two years of K1000 production was in Japan and then assembly moved to Hong Kong and lastly full manufacture to Cosina in China, although I always understood they were made at the same factory in China that made the Spotmatic 500. I could be wrong though I only know what I heard from other people.

Regarding Trading Standards he's selling it as "Item condition: Manufacturer refurbished" It's unlikely that it has been anywhere near Pentax? Also asking for £350????

Personal service is priceless.... I'll never forget when
I went in Tesco's for just two 1 pt cartons of milk and
the cashier asked me.... "Would like any help with your
packing?" No Thanks I think I can manage!!!

Trading Standards need to pay them a visit.
This is the only SE made of the K1000 and it's stamped on the camera.
link