In order to study the influence of the glue layer on the characteristics of the surface acoustic wave (SAW) torque sensor, the torque sensitive model including glue layer was built. The relationship between SAW frequency shift and applied torque was obtained by virtue of the perturbation theory. The influence of glue layer strain transfer efficiency on the SAW torque sensitivity was analyzed by utilizing the shear lag theory. The glue layer relaxation time spectrum was built according to the model of Maxwell. The strain transfer response time of the glue layer with different elastic modulus and different thickness was analyzed through numerical calculation. The results show that the use of an glue layer with large elastic modulus and low viscosity coefficient is beneficial to reduce the response time of the glue layer and improve the torque measurement accuracy. The SAW torque sensor was packaged with MBond-200 according to the obtained results. The torque experiment was carried out to test the SAW sensor packaged with MBond-200. Within the measurement range of 1～100 Nm, linearity, repeatability and hysteresis of the 100 Nm SAW sensor were 0.68%, 1.27% and 1.01%, respectively. The experiment results indicate that the response time of selected glue has little influence on the measurement of the packaged SAW torque sensor.