A surface acoustic wave device includes: a quartz substrate; and at least a single-type IDT electrode provided on a surface of the quartz substrate for exciting a Rayleigh surface acoustic wave in the upper limit mode of the surface acoustic wave stop band with the following relationships satisfied; .phi.=0.degree., 110.degree..ltoreq..theta..ltoreq.140.degree., and 38.degree..ltoreq.|.psi.|.ltoreq.44.degree., when the quartz substrate cut angles and the surface acoustic wave propagation direction are represented by Euler angles (.phi., .theta., .psi.), and wherein the electrode thickness relative to wavelength set such that H/.lamda..gtoreq.0.1796.eta..sup.3-0.4303.eta..sup.2+0.2071.eta.+0.0682, with the thickness of the IDT electrode defined as H, the width of an electrode IDT finger defined as d, the pitch between the electrode fingers of the IDT electrode as P, the wavelength of the surface acoustic wave as .lamda., and where .eta.=d/P.