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There's a nervous excitement. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my rivals as they do the "about to run" wiggle on the starting line.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Oh, hang on. I must sort my tracker. The same goes for the guy alongside me.

The person in the line expresses impatience. I'm not moving until… done! Connection established, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to find a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And it's not just us runners who wear them.

We're witnessing a thriving, massive market. Brands like Garmin dominate, each with an broad selection of diverse devices to fit a range of needs. Based on how advanced the model you choose, prices can range from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It drives me insane, it's impossible to stop checking."

"It provides solace… It acts as a supporter encouraging me."

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

A handful of the responses I've had from fellow device users when I ask what they think of theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? Currently, annoying. It's indicating I'm off pace, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm running below are interfering with my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us fasten these little devices onto our arms and keep them on 24/7, apparently at ease with the fact they're continuously tracking us.

Long past are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an idea of our daily steps. Today, they can analyse our sleep quality, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

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

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the data points we scrutinise a accurate representation of the truth? Do they boost our overall health, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just add to our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

"I become a a little preoccupied with mine," one user reveals.

While she loves how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently productive enough. Now, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I am caring for a young baby, there's no point to be informed I've not slept," she says. "That fact is perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"I suppose I could, I suppose, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I value it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the most use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically project minute LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor blood flow, recording your heartbeat. Higher-end devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to gauge your nervous system activity.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually aid early diagnosis, "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 electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the years to come.

But how to understand these readings is complicated. The expert concerns that as more functions are introduced, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that having the capacity to monitor so many things is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in wearable tech concurs. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined to use medical services".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse went up. They got more worried. They looked a second time, and their reading went up again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."