According to the studied historical sources and the surviving mechanisms, at the moment it has become possible to classify the mechanical tower clocks of Russia of the pre-Petrine and later period:

Dials were a characteristic feature of architectural objects with tower clocks, there is evidence that some tower clocks did not have a dial. Other tower clocks had a rotating dial, and most of them had a static dial.

The dials originally went out on one side of the bell tower, later on two sides. Also known are tower clocks with dials on three sides and the most common — on all four sides. Sometimes tower clocks had no hands or only one hand. The most common tower clock was the clock with two hands.

Time as a whole was previously measured in different ways. There were both day and night equal hours, and day and night unequal hours. The most common was the measurement of time by 12-12 hours, however, there was not a small number of tower clocks with a time measurement of 7-17 hours.

Tower clocks in Russia had various regulators, such as Foliot (bilyanets) and pendulum. Also, various escapements were used in tower clocks, such as a spindle (verge) escapement and an anchor escapement.

Also, the tower clock had characteristic striking mechanisms. There are indications that in Rus’ there were simple striking clocks that chimed only the clock, as well as tower clocks with a strike of quarters and a special cross (perechas’ye), as well as tower chiming clocks.