This Christmas sees a couple of unique timepieces hit the shops. Depending on your temperament, you can choose to be woken by a cheerful disembodied head or a frog chorus. Personally I’d choose the frog chorus over the other rather sinister option. The Kero clock has two cute frogs who stand atop the digital display and sing you awake.

The prize for the weirdest clock goes to Clockman, from Takara Tomy, which has neither dials nor a digital display but instead a rubbery face that moves as he speaks. When you smack him on the head, Clockman will tell the time. In the morning he’ll wake you up by saying "De de de de de, it's morning, wake up" (eek) and while you work will remind you of the time every 30 minutes or so, unless you tell him to shut up, upon which he’ll fall on his side and look peed off at you. If you ask him the time too much he’ll get annoyed at you and say, “Didn't I just tell you a moment ago.”

Clockman has many moods (he’ll get grumpy if you do too much overtime) and he comes in a number of different personalities depending on his blood type. Personally, I think this clock would drive me up the wall, but I’d definitely consider giving to a frenemy.