When that ad was released every single maker of multi-coated lenses on earth except Leica* was paying Pentax royalties on a least some part of the Super Multi Coating process. Eventually Pentax was making and selling so many cameras and lenses (and eyeglass lenses, binoculars, spotting scopes, telescopes, medical equipment, construction laser levels, industrial products and countless other things) they couldn’t build plants fast enough to keep up with their growth. They pioneered the idea of a manufacturing
campus, with employees facilities on premises. Pentax was a giant in the industry, but they were also captives of their prior investments (screwmount technology is an example of this) that were still productive.
Pentax cane to be in their position when the SMC patents ran out* and their diversified businesses weren’t throwing off cash flow during a recession. A hedge fund and Hoya collaborated to buy the distressed company in a hostile transaction. Hoya consolidated and exploited the high-margin medical imaging and device businesses. The Hedge Fund liquidated land and assets. Hoya stripped Pentax of its Japan headquarters and Factory in a Park, sold off the inventory of DA lenses at fire-sale prices in the USA, gutted the distributors of their experienced employees and abrogated their Dealer contracts, refused to make capital investments in modern manufacturing tools, then sold the husk of a company to Ricoh for $165,000,000. The first thing Ricoh had to do was buy evaporators at $1,000,000 each to bring HD coating to market. Hoya had refused to buy the machines.
You can blame corporate raiders for any delays that anger you. Ricoh has been wonderful just keeping Pentax in existence.
* Leica always maintained lenses didn’t need coating. As soon as the patents expired they started coating lenses. (Source -
Asahi Optical Historical Club)