This study reports the development of a facile and efficient one-pot polyol method for the synthesis of silver nanowires. The seed and growth of silver nanowires under different reaction conditions were characterized and measured. The pertinent variables such as temperature, time, concentration and capping agent were investigated. Moreover, the effect of seeding at two different stages-initial stage and secondary stage-was studied and discussed on the size control of silver nanowires. In particular, silver nanowires with diameter less than 40 nm and length over 25 µm in a narrow distribution, was obtained through a novel method in which reaction flask was placed in a low-temperature bath after seeding for some time in the high-temperature bath. This approach may be useful for the fabrication of uniform, large aspect ratio silver nanowires for optoelectronic applications.