Dating back more than 2,000 years, the mysterious ancient Greek device is generally considered the oldest computer in history.
It served as the inspiration for the 'Dial of Destiny' in the final Indiana Jones movie. Scientists believe they may have finally solved the mystery of the Antikythera Mechanism.
Consisting of up to 40 bronze cogs and gears, it allowed the ancient Greeks to predict the movement of the stars and planets with stunning accuracy.
But researchers from the National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina now theorize that it was more of a toy than a working computer.
In particular, they looked at the gears' triangular interlocking 'teeth', said to be integral to the mechanism's operation.
They found that manufacturing inaccuracies would have caused the device to jam so often it would have been unusable.
Such jamming, caused by the turning of the crank handle, would have made the device impractical for scientific use.
Based on what we know of its shape, 'manufacturing inaccuracies significantly increase the likelihood of gear jamming or disengagement', the team point out.
Meanwhile the triangular shape of the teeth 'results in non-uniform motion, causing acceleration and deceleration as each tooth engages'.
The research pair conclude by suggesting that if the device jammed all the time, it might not have been anything more than a clever toy, made for a child.