A watchmaker from Geneva Antoine Favre,  first incorporated a mechanism for sound production  into  watches, perfume bottles, pendants in the year 1796. This mechanism used , a "music comb". The comb is made from hardened steel. The long teeth on the comb are of varrying length and when plucked produce different musical notes according to their length.  A cylinder was installed that revolved at a set rate. Pins were then set into this cylinder so that they would pluck the teeth of the comb to form notes. This was a form of computer program.

Cylinder music boxes allowed the listener to enjoy music without having to have a human performer. The one important limitation in the beginning was that one had to put up with the music on the cylinder in the box.  Eventually this was overcome by a provision for changing the cylinder. In this way many tunes could be played on the same machine. At first this was accomplished by changing the position of the teeth in relation to the cylinder so that in one position one song was played and when shifted another could be played on the same cylinder.  As many as 12 tunes could be played on the same cylinder.

The invention of Symphonion disc music box made changing tunes much easier as well as less expensive. The first Symphonion (a.k.a.  Kalliope) boxes were  made in Leipzig, Germany during the late 1880's. Projections were punched  onto a steel disk which plucked the comb. The disks for these   symphoniums could be  as big as 24 or even 27 inches in diameter. The  24 inch disk generally  plays for 2 minutes. As these disks were standardized each machine could play many disks.  Sometimes bells were added to accompany the comb. A switch could turn the bells on or off. 

Once the mechanisms had been developed the possibilities for inserting music boxes into many other mechanisms such as clocks and boxes were endless.