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A sense of building tension. I can see the cold breath emanating from my rivals as they do the "pre-race" wiggle on the start line.

A rapid movement of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Oh, hang on. I must sort my tracker. As does the person beside me.

The person in the line expresses impatience. I won't start until… there! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

During the scramble, it's difficult to spot a person without a wearable on it. And it's not just us participants who rely on them.

We're witnessing a thriving, massive sector. Companies like Samsung Galaxy dominate, all offering an extensive array of different devices to fit a spectrum of budgets. Based on how advanced the watch you select, costs can start from an affordable sum to a small fortune.

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

"It comforts me… It feels like a supporter guiding me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a poor sleep."

A handful of the comments I've received from other device users when I ask what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My feelings on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's indicating I'm off pace, making me wonder whether the overhead branches along my route are blocking my satellite signal.

A vast number of us attach these compact devices onto our arms and use them all day and night, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Gone are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an rough count of our step count. Currently, they can measure our nightly rest, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's tricky to find a bodily function they don't track.

But do they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we scrutinise a true reflection of our actual health? Do they enhance our overall health, or do the plethora of metrics and motivational messages just add to our daily stresses?

A Complicated Bond

"I do get a quite obsessed with mine," one user admits.

While she values how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I have a young baby, there's no point to be informed I've not slept," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"It's possible, theoretically, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is maybe too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Every device of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of measuring your vitals and analysing your data, but the most use detectors on the back of the watch.

They typically shine minute LED lights onto your skin which can monitor capillary action, recording your heartbeat. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to assess your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the continuously improving tech could potentially save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which regularly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is abnormal impulses 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 early warning they might be more vulnerable of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to interpret these numbers is complicated. The expert fears that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

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

A professor specialising in patient behaviour concurs. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a set of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use medical services".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They grew concerned. Their pulse went up. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their anxiety rose further.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."