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A sense of building tension. I can see the chilled vapour coming from my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" shuffle on the start line.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. It's almost time...

Wait a second. I have to adjust my tracker. As does the guy next to me.

The person behind us expresses impatience. I won't start until… done! Connection established, away I go.

In the mele, it's hard to find a wrist without a wearable on it. And it's not just us athletes who use them.

It's a explosive, massive industry. Names like Garmin dominate, featuring an broad array of different devices to cater to a variety of needs. Based on how feature-packed the watch you select, prices can vary between a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, I can't relax."

"It reassures me… It feels like a companion supporting me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a restless night."

A handful of the comments I've had from other smartwatch wearers when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on mine? Currently, frustrating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the foliage along my route are interfering with my satellite signal.

A vast number of us attach these little monitors onto our wrists and wear them 24/7, apparently at ease with the fact they're continuously tracking us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an estimation of our daily steps. Now, they can measure our sleep patterns, stress levels, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

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

But do they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we analyse a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I become a bit fixated with mine," an individual reveals.

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

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Now, 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 informed I've not slept," she says. "I know that perfectly 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 value it for its exercise data, I sometimes question whether all the other things it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of tracking your bodily functions and processing your data, but the most use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually emit small, green LED lights onto your arm which can monitor pulsation, detecting your pulse rate. More advanced devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

A data scientist says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically prevent illness, "detecting disease before we notice anything", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like medical-grade monitoring, which regularly monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the future.

But how to make sense of these readings is not straightforward. The expert worries that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

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

A health researcher studying patient behaviour agrees. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined to use doctor's time".

She identified a pattern with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse rose. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their reading went up again.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a feedback loop."