Speidel is a manufacturer of watchbands and related items based in East Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Speidel experienced a boom in popularity, notably with their invention of the hugely popular expanding strap in the mid-1930s, and in addition to watchbands Speidel produced wristwatches, lighters, writing instruments, small jewelry, and other accessories, before beginning to decline by the end of the century with the struggle to compete with cheaper overseas production, and the boom in quartz watches.

[1] With an initial investment equivalent to US$10, Speidel started making gold and silver chains with his wife, in the basement of his home in Pforzheim, Germany.

He has been credited with developing the gold-over-metal method of manufacturing called "bi-metal" (also incorrectly known as gold "plating") which proved successful.

[2] In 1896 he built the company's first factory, installing state-of-the-art machines for the production of gold chain, previously manufactured entirely by hand.

[3] Friedrich Speidel sent his three sons, Albert, Edwin and Eugene to America to establish a branch of the family's jewelry chain manufacturing business.

[19][20] Watchband production was cut back during World War II when Speidel converted most of its facilities and started manufacturing cathode ray tubes for radar and other electronic applications.

[23][24] The company instituted a planned reduction of costume jewelry, leading to its discontinuation from the Speidel product line in the early 1950s.

[26] The company fully sponsored different TV programs, making Speidel one of the earliest television advertisers in the United States.

Speidel also changed its method to sole distributors, in strategic geographic locations, and built a sales force to cover the United States.

[38] In the 1950s, Speidel invested heavily in the development of automatic equipment to produce a bracelet similar to the German Fixo-Flex watchband.

In the midst of their international sales expansion, Speidel started OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) Business Supplies in 1972.

[55] In 1997, Textron sold Speidel to the Austrian-based Hirsch Armbänder AG, a leading manufacturer of leather watchbands in Europe.

In 2002, the company's ownership once again returned to the United States, when JRM Holdings bought Speidel from Hirsch Armbänder.