diff --git a/packages/middleware-retry/src/configurations.ts b/packages/middleware-retry/src/configurations.ts
index 6dfceea2aa5..1b6fb7f01cd 100644
--- a/packages/middleware-retry/src/configurations.ts
+++ b/packages/middleware-retry/src/configurations.ts
@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ export interface PreviouslyResolved {
    * @internal
    */
   retryMode: string | Provider<string>;
-
-  systemClockOffset?: number;
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/packages/middleware-retry/src/retryDecider.ts b/packages/middleware-retry/src/retryDecider.ts
index 5a43f9f34af..e2913d065bc 100644
--- a/packages/middleware-retry/src/retryDecider.ts
+++ b/packages/middleware-retry/src/retryDecider.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ import {
 } from "@smithy/service-error-classification";
 import { SdkError } from "@smithy/types";
 
+/**
+ * @deprecated this is only used in the deprecated StandardRetryStrategy. Do not use in new code.
+ */
 export const defaultRetryDecider = (error: SdkError) => {
   if (!error) {
     return false;
diff --git a/packages/middleware-retry/src/retryMiddleware.ts b/packages/middleware-retry/src/retryMiddleware.ts
index da7a9a47ced..4424cca1726 100644
--- a/packages/middleware-retry/src/retryMiddleware.ts
+++ b/packages/middleware-retry/src/retryMiddleware.ts
@@ -16,18 +16,15 @@ import {
   RetryStrategyV2,
   RetryToken,
   SdkError,
-  SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata,
 } from "@smithy/types";
 import { INVOCATION_ID_HEADER, REQUEST_HEADER } from "@smithy/util-retry";
 import { v4 } from "uuid";
 
-import { PreviouslyResolved, RetryResolvedConfig } from "./configurations";
+import { RetryResolvedConfig } from "./configurations";
 import { isStreamingPayload } from "./isStreamingPayload/isStreamingPayload";
 import { asSdkError } from "./util";
 
-export const retryMiddleware = (options: RetryResolvedConfig & Partial<PreviouslyResolved>) => <
-  Output extends MetadataBearer = MetadataBearer
->(
+export const retryMiddleware = (options: RetryResolvedConfig) => <Output extends MetadataBearer = MetadataBearer>(
   next: FinalizeHandler<any, Output>,
   context: HandlerExecutionContext
 ): FinalizeHandler<any, Output> => async (
@@ -49,30 +46,19 @@ export const retryMiddleware = (options: RetryResolvedConfig & Partial<Previousl
       request.headers[INVOCATION_ID_HEADER] = v4();
     }
 
-    let initialSystemClockOffset = 0;
-
     while (true) {
       try {
         if (isRequest) {
           request.headers[REQUEST_HEADER] = `attempt=${attempts + 1}; max=${maxAttempts}`;
         }
-        initialSystemClockOffset = options.systemClockOffset ?? 0 | 0;
         const { response, output } = await next(args);
         retryStrategy.recordSuccess(retryToken);
         output.$metadata.attempts = attempts + 1;
         output.$metadata.totalRetryDelay = totalRetryDelay;
         return { response, output };
-      } catch (e: unknown) {
-        const latestSystemClockOffset = options.systemClockOffset ?? 0 | 0;
-        const clockSkewCorrected = initialSystemClockOffset !== latestSystemClockOffset;
-
-        const sdkError = e as SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata;
-        if (clockSkewCorrected && sdkError.$metadata && typeof sdkError.$metadata === "object") {
-          sdkError.$metadata.clockSkewCorrected = true;
-        }
-
-        const retryErrorInfo = getRetryErrorInfo(sdkError);
-        lastError = asSdkError(sdkError);
+      } catch (e: any) {
+        const retryErrorInfo = getRetryErrorInfo(e);
+        lastError = asSdkError(e);
 
         if (isRequest && isStreamingPayload(request)) {
           (context.logger instanceof NoOpLogger ? console : context.logger)?.warn(
@@ -110,7 +96,7 @@ const isRetryStrategyV2 = (retryStrategy: RetryStrategy | RetryStrategyV2) =>
   typeof (retryStrategy as RetryStrategyV2).refreshRetryTokenForRetry !== "undefined" &&
   typeof (retryStrategy as RetryStrategyV2).recordSuccess !== "undefined";
 
-const getRetryErrorInfo = (error: SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata): RetryErrorInfo => {
+const getRetryErrorInfo = (error: SdkError): RetryErrorInfo => {
   const errorInfo: RetryErrorInfo = {
     error,
     errorType: getRetryErrorType(error),
@@ -122,7 +108,7 @@ const getRetryErrorInfo = (error: SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata): RetryErrorInfo
   return errorInfo;
 };
 
-const getRetryErrorType = (error: SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata): RetryErrorType => {
+const getRetryErrorType = (error: SdkError): RetryErrorType => {
   if (isThrottlingError(error)) return "THROTTLING";
   if (isTransientError(error)) return "TRANSIENT";
   if (isServerError(error)) return "SERVER_ERROR";
diff --git a/packages/service-error-classification/src/index.ts b/packages/service-error-classification/src/index.ts
index c3e6be11d19..77941ba8a5d 100644
--- a/packages/service-error-classification/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/service-error-classification/src/index.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { SdkError, SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata } from "@smithy/types";
+import { SdkError } from "@smithy/types";
 
 import {
   CLOCK_SKEW_ERROR_CODES,
@@ -10,8 +10,16 @@ import {
 
 export const isRetryableByTrait = (error: SdkError) => error.$retryable !== undefined;
 
+/**
+ * @deprecated use isClockSkewCorrectedError. This is only used in deprecated code.
+ */
 export const isClockSkewError = (error: SdkError) => CLOCK_SKEW_ERROR_CODES.includes(error.name);
 
+/**
+ * @returns whether the error resulted in a systemClockOffset aka clock skew correction.
+ */
+export const isClockSkewCorrectedError = (error: SdkError) => error.$metadata?.clockSkewCorrected;
+
 export const isThrottlingError = (error: SdkError) =>
   error.$metadata?.httpStatusCode === 429 ||
   THROTTLING_ERROR_CODES.includes(error.name) ||
@@ -23,8 +31,8 @@ export const isThrottlingError = (error: SdkError) =>
  * cause where the NodeHttpHandler does not decorate the Error with
  * the name "TimeoutError" to be checked by the TRANSIENT_ERROR_CODES condition.
  */
-export const isTransientError = (error: SdkError | SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata) =>
-  (error as SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata).$metadata?.clockSkewCorrected ||
+export const isTransientError = (error: SdkError) =>
+  isClockSkewCorrectedError(error) ||
   TRANSIENT_ERROR_CODES.includes(error.name) ||
   NODEJS_TIMEOUT_ERROR_CODES.includes((error as { code?: string })?.code || "") ||
   TRANSIENT_ERROR_STATUS_CODES.includes(error.$metadata?.httpStatusCode || 0);
diff --git a/packages/types/src/shapes.ts b/packages/types/src/shapes.ts
index e3f3af26be9..129444877c1 100644
--- a/packages/types/src/shapes.ts
+++ b/packages/types/src/shapes.ts
@@ -79,15 +79,15 @@ export interface SmithyException {
  * the base exception for the service should be used. Each client exports
  * a base ServiceException prefixed with the service name.
  */
-export type SdkError = Error & Partial<SmithyException> & Partial<MetadataBearer>;
-
-/**
- * @internal
- *
- * @deprecated for same reason as SdkError. Use public client modeled exceptions in application code.
- */
-export type SkdErrorWithClockSkewMetadata = SdkError & {
-  $metadata: SdkError["$metadata"] & {
-    clockSkewCorrected?: boolean;
+export type SdkError = Error &
+  Partial<SmithyException> &
+  Partial<MetadataBearer> & {
+    $metadata?: Partial<MetadataBearer>["$metadata"] & {
+      /**
+       * If present, will have value of true and indicates that the error resulted in a
+       * correction of the clock skew, a.k.a. config.systemClockOffset.
+       * This is specific to AWS SDK and sigv4.
+       */
+      readonly clockSkewCorrected?: true;
+    };
   };
-};