Abstract: A machine for the manufacture of chains of the "rope chain" type for the goldsmithery industry, in which each link is taken from a spiral of wire by means of one or more cuts tangential to the internal profile of the winding. The cuts can be simultaneous or consecutive. The cutting unit includes a pair of blades, the cutting plane of which is adjustable with respect to horizontal so that it can be perpendicular to the coil winding to be cut; it also oscillates between two cutting positions in order to obtain separation of the link with two consecutive cuts in correspondence to two intermittent, 180.degree. one-way rotations of the coil. For chain-linking, a calibrated passage with a decreasing section is provided, in which the take-up unit, after having united a link to those already joined, forces the chain to advance, producing closure of the links with partial overlapping of their contoured extremities.