Systems and methods for winding wire are disclosed. A system includes a wire take-up unit having a rotating mandrel and a traverse having a wire directing device, the wire directing device arranged to cause the wire to be wound in a figure-eight configuration on the rotating mandrel to form a coil having many layers of wire. The wire directing device reciprocates along an axis parallel to the axis of rotation of the mandrel. The wire directing device also rotates along an axis perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the mandrel so that the lay-down point of the wire directing device sweeps over an arc for each throw of the traverse.