"The VFA was a pinnacle in Grand Seiko's history in terms of timekeeping accuracy and also represented a bold era of design for the brand, especially in terms of case shapes. The slim hands and tall markers are also an unusual and charming detail. I wore this watch the first time I visited Grand Seiko's manufacture as well as many other meetings with the company. It opened many doors for me and eventually was even featured in Matt Hranek's book "A Man and His Watch".

With its unpolished stainless steel case, the silver sunburst dial of this present VFA has developed incredible charm. Aged with a tinted patina throughout, it has certainly become an extraordinary example." — Mark Cho

The pinnacle of Japanese Chronometers began in 1960, a challenger to the Swiss standard defined by the Bureaux Officiels de Controle de la Marche des Montres, the Grand Seiko “First” powered by the calibre 3180 received an “excellent” rating with a chronometer standard of -3 and +12 seconds. With a restriction that only watches tested in Switzerland deserved to have “Chronometer” printed on the dial, the Japanese took the matter into their own hands.

Enters the “Grand Seiko Standard” in 1966, a new level of precision the Japanese took a step further with a daily rate of -3 and +5 seconds while the Swiss standard was still -1 and +10 seconds per day. And if that wasn’t enough, Japan took another leap to redefine the norm with the “Grand Seiko Very Fine Adjusted Standard (VFA)”. An impressive achievement of a daily rate of -2 and +2 seconds per day, the VFA certified watches were further guaranteed to be accurate to within one minute per month for two years of ownership. Two facilities were responsible for the VFA watches: Suwa Seikosha (Nagano) and Daini Seikosha (Tokyo) identifiable by the logo mark printed beneath VFA of the dial.

Introduced as a day-date reference from the lineage, the present ref 6186-8000 was produced by Suwa Seikosha and was powered by the calibre 6186.