At present, a high-speed swivel tool head of a small size is required to improve the productivity of CNC automatic lathes. Hence, there is growing interest in shorter machining times with higher cutting speeds. However, an increase in the rotation speed of a swivel tool head also has adverse effects, such as vibration and noise caused by the swivel tool head system. In this work, the fatigue life and contact pressure of a swivel tool head bearing system driven by gears were calculated. Based on the calculated results, a prototype swivel tool head was manufactured and its static and dynamic characteristics, i.e., the vibration, noise and precision, were measured using a reliability testing device which allows the application of cutting force to the end of the swivel tool head.