The coil winding apparatus is for manufacturing a coil by winding a wire rod around a winding core rotated by a rotating mechanism, wherein the winding core has a base plate and a plurality of winding pins erected on the base plate, and a circumferential groove into which a wire rod are put is formed on the periphery of the plurality of winding pins. The rotation mechanism is provided with a rotatable rotating plate, a drive mechanism for rotating the rotating plate, and a pair of columnar members erected on the rotating plate so as to put a rotation center with between a pair of the columnar members. An inner base plate is mounted to a tip of the pair of columnar members, and the coil winding apparatus is provided with an outer winding core moving mechanism.