The present invention relates to a piston (10) for an internal combustion engine, having a combustion depression (13) which is provided in the piston head (11) and has an encircling undercut (14), wherein the encircling depression edge (15) which connects the undercut (14) to the piston head (11) has alternately rounded (16, 17) and sharp-edged depression edge regions (18, 19). It is provided according to the invention that the encircling depression edge (15) merges along its entire periphery into a planar encircling face (20) which in turn merges along its entire periphery with a sharp edge into the undercut (14). The method according to the invention for producing a piston (10) of the type is characterized in that, in a first method step, a combustion depression with an encircling undercut and with an encircling depression edge is formed in the piston head (11) using a lathe tool, and in that, in a second method step, in order to produce the rounded (16, 17) and sharp-edged depression edge regions (18, 19), the lathe tool is moved radially outwards rectilinearly from the central point of the combustion depression by a defined magnitude.