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A sense of feeling of anticipation. I can see the cold breath coming from my competitors as they perform the "starting line" wiggle on the beginning point.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I need to start my device. The same goes for the person alongside me.

The person waiting tuts. I won't start until… done! Signal acquired, away I go.

During the scramble, it's difficult to find a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us participants who rely on them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion dollar industry. Brands like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, each with an extensive selection of various devices to fit a variety of needs. Based on how high tech the device you go for, prices can range from a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, I can't stop checking."

"It provides solace… It acts as a companion guiding me."

"Stop telling me about a poor sleep."

A handful of the responses I've had from like-minded tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? Right now, annoying. It's telling me my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are blocking my location tracking.

A vast number of us strap these small monitors onto our arms and wear them constantly, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're constantly recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them only to give us an rough count of our daily steps. Now, they can track our sleep patterns, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's tricky to find a health indicator they aren't designed to measure.

But are they able to do what they claim to do? And are the data points we scrutinise a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they boost our daily wellness, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I do get a a little preoccupied with mine," a wearer admits.

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

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently productive enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a infant, it's unnecessary for me to be notified I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware only too well."

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"I suppose I could, I suppose, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is maybe too much for me."

Inside the Device

Different brands of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your bodily functions and processing your data, but the most use optical sensors on the back of the watch.

They usually emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can observe blood flow, identifying your heartbeat. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to assess your nervous system activity.

Expert Perspectives

A professor says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially prevent illness, "detecting disease before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is abnormal signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the long term.

But how to interpret these numbers is complex. The expert concerns that as additional features are incorporated, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I remain sceptical that having the capacity to monitor so much data is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher studying wearable tech echoes this sentiment. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They felt anxious. Their BPM went up. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their reading went up again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."