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There's a building tension. I can see the chilled vapour exhaled by my competitors as they execute the "about to run" shuffle on the start line.

A rapid flick of the hips.

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

Hold on. I have to sort my tracker. As does the guy next to me.

The person behind us tuts. I'm not moving until… there! Signal acquired, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's difficult to spot a arm without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us athletes who use them.

It's a thriving, multi-billion dollar industry. Names like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, featuring an extensive selection of various models to cater to a spectrum of needs. Based on how high tech the watch you choose, prices can range from £100 to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, I'm unable to switch off."

"It comforts me… It acts as a companion encouraging me."

"Stop telling me I've had a poor sleep."

A handful of the reactions I've received from fellow device users when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My thoughts on mine? At this moment, irritating. It's indicating my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the trees along my route are disrupting my location tracking.

A vast number of us attach these small gadgets onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, ostensibly unconcerned with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Gone are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an estimation of our step count. Now, they can measure our sleep patterns, blood pressure, glucose levels, our recovery score.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we analyse a faithful picture of the truth? Do they improve our overall health, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I find myself getting a bit obsessed with mine," one user confesses.

While she values how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Before she realised she could change its configuration, her smartwatch kept telling her she was being insufficiently active enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a infant, there's no point to be notified I'm tired," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, I suppose, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your vitals and analysing your data, but the majority use detectors on the underside of the watch.

They usually shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can observe capillary action, recording your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to gauge your stress levels.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the continuously improving tech could actually save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is abnormal impulses in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not mean someone is about to have a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the future.

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

"I'm not entirely convinced that being able to monitor so much data is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on wearable tech echoes this sentiment. A study into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She noted a cycle with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They became worried. Their pulse went up. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their reading increased again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."