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There's a building tension. Apparent is the frosty air emanating from my fellow runners as they do the "pre-race" wiggle on the start line.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. It's almost time...

Hold on. I need to sort my tracker. As does the runner alongside me.

The person behind us expresses impatience. I'm not moving until… there! Signal acquired, away I go.

In the mele, it's challenging to see a arm without a smartwatch on it. And it's not just us athletes who wear them.

This is a thriving, massive market. Names like Apple Watch are prevalent, featuring an broad range of different models to fit a variety of budgets. According to how feature-packed the model you choose, costs can range from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to switch off."

"It reassures me… It feels like a supporter encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me about a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the responses people have shared from like-minded device users when I inquire what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? Right now, annoying. It's reporting I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the foliage I'm passing under are blocking my GPS connection.

A vast number of us strap these little devices onto our arms and use them all day and night, apparently at ease with the fact they're continuously tracking us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them exclusively to give us an estimation of our step count. Currently, they can measure our sleep quality, blood pressure, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

It's tricky 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 analyse a accurate representation of the truth? Do they improve our overall health, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

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

While she loves how her device tracks her runs, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I am caring for a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be told I'm tired," she says. "I know that only too well."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I appreciate it for its exercise data, but I'm unsure whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your vitals and processing your data, but the most use sensors on the back of the watch.

They commonly shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can monitor blood flow, recording your heartbeat. Higher-end devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to assess your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "anxious healthy".

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

This does not necessarily indicate someone is about to have a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the long term.

But how to understand these figures is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions are added, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that having the capacity to monitor so many metrics is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist studying cardiology concurs. Research into the influence of wearable tech on a set of individuals with health issues suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She identified a pattern with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They felt anxious. Their BPM rose. They got more worried. They checked again, and their reading rose further.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."