PURPOSE: To automatically polish a lens with high accuracy, always to a high quality, by securing a polishing holder on a polishing dish and automatically causing the dish to rock forward, backward, rightward and leftward and perform a planetary motion in a prescribed range of angle.

CONSTITUTION: A poliching dish C is automatically caused to move rightward, leftward, forward and backward and perform a planetary motion, so that a lens L is rocked about a holder shaft A. There is no bend turn point in all the rocking motion of the lens L, and the motion is very slow. For this reason, the lens L receives no sharp thrust, so that it is naturally and smoothly polished. The range X of the polishing in this method is expressed as X≥0.8 where X is equal to the ratio of the diameter D of the lens to its radius R of curvature. According to this method, the lens L is polished with very high stability and accuracy.