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There's a building tension. Apparent is the chilled vapour coming from my rivals as they perform the "about to run" shuffle on the start line.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I have to sort my device. The same goes for the runner next to me.

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

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to spot a arm without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us participants who use them.

It's a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Brands like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, all offering an extensive selection of various versions to suit a range of needs. Based on how feature-packed the watch you go for, costs can start from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, I can't switch off."

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

"Stop telling me I've had a bad night's sleep."

Just some of the reactions I've had from like-minded tracker enthusiasts when I question what they think of theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My current opinion on mine? Currently, irritating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, making me wonder whether the trees along my route are blocking my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us attach these compact monitors onto our arms and use them 24/7, seemingly at ease with the fact they're continuously tracking us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them solely to give us an rough count of our pedometer reading. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they claim to do? And are the data points we scrutinise a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the multitude of measurements and constant notifications just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a a little preoccupied with mine," one user confesses.

While she appreciates how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be active enough. In a new phase, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I have a infant, I don't need to be notified my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"It's possible, theoretically, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether all the other things it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your health metrics and interpreting your data, but the most use detectors on the back of the watch.

They typically project minute LED lights onto your wrist which can detect capillary action, recording your heartbeat. More advanced devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to gauge your nervous system activity.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically prevent illness, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can perform tests like medical-grade monitoring, which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to interpret these readings is complicated. The expert worries that as further capabilities are added, people may struggle to fully understand their data.

"I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A professor specialising in wearable tech concurs. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use medical services".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM rose. They got increasingly anxious. They checked again, and their heart rate increased again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."