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A sense of feeling of anticipation. I can see the cold breath exhaled by my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" shuffle on the starting line.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Hold on. I have to sort my device. The same goes for the person next to me.

The person behind us sighs. I refuse to go until… there! Signal acquired, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's difficult to spot a wrist without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us athletes who use them.

It's a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Brands like Apple Watch dominate, featuring an extensive range of different versions to fit a range of budgets. According to how high tech the watch you choose, costs can range from a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

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

"It comforts me… It feels like a companion guiding me."

"I wish it wouldn't say about a poor sleep."

A small sample of the comments I've received from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on mine? Right now, irritating. It's reporting I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the overhead branches I'm running below are blocking my satellite signal.

A vast number of us fasten these small devices onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, ostensibly unconcerned with the fact they're continuously recording us.

Long past are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an rough count of our pedometer reading. Now, they can analyse our sleep quality, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

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

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the numbers we obsess over a accurate representation of reality? Do they boost our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of metrics and cheerleading alerts just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she loves how her device tracks her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Prior to discovering she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be energetic enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a infant, I don't need to be informed I'm tired," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Couldn't she just remove it?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she says. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of monitoring your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the most use detectors on the back of the watch.

They usually shine small, green LED lights onto your wrist which can observe pulsation, recording your pulse rate. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually aid early diagnosis, "detecting disease before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular impulses in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a heart problem in the long term.

But how to interpret these figures is complicated. The expert worries that as further capabilities are introduced, people may not be able to fully comprehend their data.

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

A clinical psychologist studying cardiology agrees. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She noted a cycle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate increased. They got increasingly anxious. They checked again, and their reading went up again.

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."