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A sense of nervous excitement. I can see the cold breath emanating from my rivals as they perform the "starting line" shuffle on the start line.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Wait a second. I have to start my tracker. So does the guy beside me.

The person waiting tuts. I'm not moving until… yes! Connection established, away I go.

Amidst the crowd, it's challenging to spot a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us athletes who rely on them.

We're witnessing a thriving, massive sector. Brands like Apple Watch dominate, all offering an broad array of different models to cater to a variety of needs. According to how feature-packed the model you go for, prices can vary between a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, I'm unable to relax."

"It reassures me… It's like a companion supporting me."

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

A small sample of the reactions I've received from like-minded device users when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My current opinion on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the foliage along my route are blocking my location tracking.

A vast number of us fasten these small gadgets onto our wrists and keep them on constantly, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're continuously tracking us.

Gone are the days when we depended on them only to give us an estimation of our step count. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

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

But do they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we analyse a faithful picture of reality? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of metrics and motivational messages just add to our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

"I do get a a little preoccupied with mine," an individual reveals.

While she loves how her device tracks her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Before she realised she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be productive enough. Now, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I've got a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be told I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"It's possible, theoretically, but I'm in this love-hate relationship with it," she says. "I value it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Different brands of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of tracking your bodily functions and processing your data, but the majority use detectors on the underside of the watch.

They usually shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can detect pulsation, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can perform tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not automatically signal someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more vulnerable of a stroke in the future.

But how to interpret these readings is complex. The expert concerns that as further capabilities are added, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

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

A health researcher focusing on cardiology echoes this sentiment. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a set of individuals with health issues suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse increased. They got more worried. They checked again, and their anxiety increased again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, understandably, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."