An armature winding machine in which flyers rotating about an axis that intersects the axis of an armature core held in a winding receiving position wind wire drawn from a supply thereof onto the armature core, and wire gripping and wire cutting devices automatically grip the stretch of wire leading from each flyer to the armature core at the completion of the winding operation, and cut the same between the portions thereof in the grasp of the wire gripping devices and the armature, while the armature is still in the winding receiving position, so that the length of wire that is not a part of the wound armature and must be cut off is considerably shorter than was possible with prior winding machines. In the more sophisticated embodiment of the disclosed machine, the wire cutting devices cut the wire directly adjacent to the commutator tangs to which the starting leads and the ending leads of the wound armature are attached; but in all embodiments of the disclosed invention, the wire gripping devices hold the ends of the stretches of wire leading from the flyers from the instant they grasp the wire at the completion of the armature winding operation, until the next-to-be wound armature core has replaced the just-wound armature and the winding operation has been re-started.