PROVIDENCE — A Rhode Island private-equity partnership bought the assets of the iconic Speidel company, in a deal approved last week by a Superior Court judge, according to the lawyer overseeing the company’s finances.

Siblings Gennaro and Lynnemarie Cerce, both principals in Cerce Capital LLC, paid $1.65 million for what was left of Cranston-based Speidel, the 105-year-old seller of watchbands, according to Allan M. Shine, the court-appointed receiver in the case.

The siblings are the children of veteran Rhode Island businessman Gerald F. Cerce, who is a principal in Management Capital, a Providence private-equity firm. The elder Cerce will act as an adviser to his children, said Joseph Ferrucci, a lawyer who represents Cerce Capital.

Gennaro and Lynnemarie Cerce’s intent “is to rebuild the company and keep as many jobs as possible,” Ferrucci said. “They want to get the business up and running and begin the process of selling again.”

Speidel filed for receivership in June, a victim of the deep recession that dried up consumer spending. Receivership is a form of bankruptcy in which the state’s Superior Court oversees the liquidation of insolvent business.

Separately, Shine said, he will ask Superior Court Judge Michael A. Silverstein on Aug. 26 to approve the sale of the Providence Watch Hospital to Evan Saltzman for $53,000. Saltzman is related to Joseph Saltzman, who founded Providence Watch Hospital in 1940. Speidel purchased the Watch Hospital in 2001.

Speidel has had several owners during the past century, including Textron Inc., the Providence-based conglomerate, which bought the watchband-maker in 1964,

Speidel’s most recent owner was Frederick N. Levinger, a jewelry industry veteran who came out of retirement to acquire Speidel in 2007.

In purchasing Speidel, Levinger also acquired the Watch Hospital, a watch repair and sales business with retail shops in Cranston and South Kingstown. Its seven watchmakers and five technicians serviced 55,000 timepieces annually.

In all, the two privately held businesses had 47 employees.

Joseph Saltzman founded the Watch Hospital in downtown Providence in 1940. His son, Richard, took over the business in 1975, opening a branch in Wakefield in 1985 and moving the original shop on Dorrance Street several times before relocating to Cranston.

The Watch Hospital was caught up in Speidel’s financial problems and left some customers waiting weeks for the return of watches they left for repairs.

“My watch is not an asset of the Watch Hospital; it belongs to me,” said Karen Klingon, in an e-mail to The Journal. “The repair was supposed to be completed under warranty, so I paid nothing when I dropped off my watch.

“All that’s owed me is the watch itself.”

By the time Levinger acquired Speidel from Jeffrey Massotti, the company was mainly a watchband distributor, importing products from China and selling them in the United States to 2,500 manufacturers, jewelers and big-box stores such as Wal-Mart.

Gerald F. Cerce is a 1969 graduate of Bryant College and a member of Bryant University’s board of trustees.

Cerce gained notice in 1972 when he purchased a small costume-jewelry manufacturer with less than $1 million in annual sales and built it into AAi.Foster Grant, a maker of sunglasses, fashion accessories and handbags. Foster Grant is now part of Smithfield-based FGX International Holdings Ltd.

Cerce co-founded Management Capital in 2003, along with Ernest D. Humphreys and Robert D. Manchester. The company invests in medium-sized manufacturing businesses.

pgrimald@projo.com