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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. I can see the cold breath exhaled by my competitors as they do the "starting line" shuffle on the starting line.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local 5km community parkrun and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Hold on. I need to adjust my tracker. The same goes for the person next to me.

The person waiting sighs. I'm not moving until… there! Signal acquired, away I go.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to see a arm without a fitness tracker on it. And it's not just us participants who rely on them.

This is a booming, multi-billion dollar sector. Brands like Apple Watch lead the market, all offering an broad array of diverse devices to fit a variety of lifestyles. Based on how advanced the device you go for, prices can range from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to switch off."

"It provides solace… It feels like a companion guiding me."

"Stop telling me about a bad night's sleep."

Just some of the reactions people have shared from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I question what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on my own device? Right now, annoying. It's telling me I'm off pace, making me wonder whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are blocking my GPS connection.

Countless individuals of us fasten these small monitors onto our wrists and keep them on 24/7, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Now, they can measure our nightly rest, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.

But do they do what they say they do? And are the data points we analyse a true reflection of the truth? Do they boost our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of metrics and motivational messages just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I do get a a little obsessed with mine," a wearer admits.

While she loves how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be notified my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I value it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of monitoring your health metrics and interpreting your data, but the most use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They commonly emit small, green LED lights onto your wrist which can detect capillary action, recording your BPM. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the skin conductance that flows through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not automatically signal someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to interpret these figures is complex. The expert fears that as further capabilities are added, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that being able to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A professor focusing on cardiology agrees. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She noted a cycle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their pulse rose. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their reading rose further.

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."