It was designed by architect Vedat Tek upon the order of Musa Kazım Bey, the governor of İzmit, and built in 1902.

Other sources name the architect of the tower as Mihran Azaryan who was an Armenian-Ottoman of Izmit origin.

All four facades of the middle floors are decorated with the seal of Sultan Abdülhamid II.

The clock tower has been an inseparable part of the history of İzmit throughout the 20th century, and has become the symbol of the city.

In the former Balkan provinces of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in present-day Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin towns such as Belgrade, Prijepolje, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Gradačac and Stara Varoš, similar Ottoman era clock towers are still named Sahat Kula (deriving from the Turkish words Saat Kulesi, meaning Clock Tower.)