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There's a feeling of anticipation. I can see the chilled vapour exhaled by my fellow runners as they do the "pre-race" jiggle on the start line.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Hold on. I need to adjust my watch. The same goes for the runner next to me.

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

In the mele, it's challenging to see a wrist without a wearable on it. And it's not just us athletes who rely on them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion pound sector. Names like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, each with an wide array of different devices to suit a spectrum of budgets. According to how high tech the model you choose, price tags can start from £100 to a small fortune.

"It makes me crazy, it's impossible to relax."

"It reassures me… It's like a supporter encouraging me."

"Stop telling me I've experienced a restless night."

A small sample of the reactions people have shared from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the trees I'm passing under are disrupting my satellite signal.

Millions of us strap these compact monitors onto our arms and wear them constantly, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an idea of our step count. Currently, they can analyse our sleep quality, blood pressure, glucose levels, our recovery score.

It's difficult to find a bodily function they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the statistics we scrutinise a faithful picture of our actual health? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the multitude of metrics and constant notifications just increase our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a a little fixated with mine," an individual admits.

While she loves how her device monitors her workouts, she finds some of its other features "daunting" at times - a feeling first discovered during a significant period.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be active enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a young baby, there's no point to be informed I'm tired," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just stop wearing it?

"I could, I suppose, but I have this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether all the other things it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your vitals and interpreting your data, but the majority use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually shine small, green LED lights onto your skin which can observe pulsation, detecting your BPM. More advanced devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to gauge your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", 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 continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular impulses in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not automatically signal someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to make sense of these numbers is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions are added, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

"I remain sceptical that being able to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A professor focusing on wearable tech agrees. A study into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they spotted a alarming metric on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM increased. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety went up again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."