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A sense of building tension. I can see the cold breath coming from my fellow runners as they do the "about to run" shuffle on the starting line.

A rapid flick of the hips.

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

Wait a second. I need to start my tracker. As does the person alongside me.

The person in the line sighs. I won't start until… done! Connection established, away I go.

During the scramble, it's challenging to find a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us runners who use them.

It's a thriving, massive sector. Companies like Garmin dominate, all offering an wide range of various versions to fit a spectrum of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the watch you go for, costs can range from £100 to a significant investment.

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

"It provides solace… It's like a companion supporting me."

"Please don't notify me I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the reactions people have shared from other device users when I question what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on my own device? Right now, annoying. It's reporting I'm off pace, making me wonder whether the foliage along my route are interfering with my location tracking.

Millions of us fasten these little devices onto our arms and wear them 24/7, apparently at ease with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

A distant memory are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an idea of our daily steps. Currently, they can track our sleep patterns, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a physical metric they aren't designed to measure.

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the numbers we obsess over a true reflection of reality? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of measurements and cheerleading alerts just increase our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

"I become a a little preoccupied with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she appreciates how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other features "daunting" at times - a feeling initially realised during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was not being productive enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I've got a six-month old, there's no point to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "I know that perfectly well."

Couldn't she just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

Inside the Device

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

They usually project small, green LED lights onto your skin which can observe pulsation, identifying your BPM. Higher-end devices detect changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to gauge your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially prevent illness, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which regularly monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a heart problem in the future.

But how to understand these figures is complex. The expert fears that as more functions are incorporated, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

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

A professor focusing on cardiology echoes this sentiment. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They felt anxious. Their heart rate increased. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their reading increased again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."