Abstract: A continuous wire winding machine for winding wire on reels having a pair of spaced flanges connected by a central core. The machine includes a machine frame, a conveyor for supplying empty reels to and removing wound reels from the machine, two pairs of arbor means for gripping and rapidly rotating reels for the winding of wire thereon, one of each of said pairs being a driven arbor, and transfer mechanism for transferring empty reels from the conveyor and wound reels to the conveyor. The transfer mechanism includes a pair of robotic arm assemblies, each of which comprises a first gripper for grasping an empty reel at one end of the assembly and a second gripper for grabbing a wound reel at the other end of the assembly, shaft means mounting each of the robotic arm assemblies for oscillation through an arc of 180.degree.