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There's a building tension. Visible is the cold breath coming from my rivals as they execute the "about to run" shuffle on the start line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local weekly parkrun event and I'm serious. It's almost time...

Oh, hang on. I must adjust my tracker. So does the person next to me.

The person behind us tuts. I'm not moving until… yes! Signal acquired, away I go.

During the scramble, it's hard to see a person without a smartwatch on it. And it's not just us runners who rely on them.

It's a explosive, massive industry. Names like Samsung Galaxy dominate, each with an broad selection of diverse versions to cater to a variety of needs. Based on how feature-packed the watch you select, costs can range from a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, I can't relax."

"It reassures me… It acts as a companion supporting me."

"I wish it wouldn't say about a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the comments I've received from fellow device users when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My feelings on my own device? Currently, frustrating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the trees along my route are blocking my satellite signal.

A vast number of us strap these little gadgets onto our wrists and use them all day and night, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're perpetually monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them solely to give us an estimation of our step count. Currently, they can analyse our sleep patterns, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's difficult to find a health indicator they don't track.

But are they able to do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we analyse a true reflection of the truth? Do they enhance our overall health, or do the plethora of metrics and constant notifications just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a a little fixated with mine," one user admits.

While she values how her device tracks her runs, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a pregnancy.

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently active enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I have a six-month old, there's no point to be told I've not slept," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I could, I suppose, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps excessive for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of tracking your bodily functions and processing your data, but the vast bulk use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can observe pulsation, identifying your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually aid early diagnosis, "detecting disease before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the long term.

But how to interpret these readings is complex. The expert concerns that as more functions are introduced, people may not be able to fully comprehend their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that having the capacity to monitor so many metrics is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher focusing on wearable tech echoes this sentiment. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate went up. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety went up again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."