It probably was. Mind you the craftsman probably made more than one of that type of thing, but each would have been to order for the customer, and designed to the needs and budget of the customer. Want a different calendar - no problem at all. Want to skip the phases of the moon - that will save you some money. Want to add something else - just a bit more cash.
This was made by a master craftsman, but in there wouldn't have been a large number of people who could afford such a thing. It is possible the craftsman was paid to never made another so the buyer can show off something unique.
It's possible that Facebook will ring me today to make me VP of R&D and pay me $5m a year. But I have no reason to believe that is so, and nor do you, and nor does anyone about the craftsman who made the Antikythera Mechanism! There is no reason to believe that the thing was customized from a menu of functionality - it's just as likely that a machine like this was the tool of a navigator or sea captain and one of a hand made, very expensive, but standard type. Rather like a marine chronometer would have been in the 16th Century. I could argue that it's much more likely because we found the thing on a ship and so on - but there is just no evidence either way really.
On the other hand we do have references to similar machines, autonoma and so on, in ancient sources. So it certainly wasn't completely unique. The interesting thing to me is that it doesn't seem that this was translated into clock making.
How many times has humanity thrown away wonderful knowledge due to a violent mob emotionally manipulated by those seeking power?
This device originated some time in the second or first century BC, half a millennium before the ascendancy of Christianity, so we can't blame the lack of evidence of any successor devices during that period on religion.
The next time we see similarly sophisticated devices in Europe is the early 14th century, in the form of astronomical clocks such as those made by Richard of Wallingford in the 1330s. That's at the height of the ascendency of the Catholic church, and several hundred years before the reformation got under way.
