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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. I can see the chilled vapour coming from my competitors as they execute the "starting line" shuffle on the start line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm at my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Hold on. I have to start my watch. The same goes for the runner next to me.

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

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to find a wrist without a fitness tracker on it. And this extends beyond us participants who use them.

It's a explosive, multi-billion pound sector. Names like Garmin are prevalent, featuring an wide range of different versions to cater to a range of lifestyles. Based on how high tech the watch you go for, costs can range from £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It makes me crazy, I can't switch off."

"It provides solace… It feels like a supporter guiding me."

"Please don't notify me about a restless night."

A handful of the comments I've received from other smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My thoughts on my own device? At this moment, irritating. It's indicating I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the trees I'm passing under are disrupting my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us fasten these compact gadgets onto our arms and wear them constantly, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Gone are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an rough count of our step count. Currently, they can analyse our sleep quality, blood pressure, glucose levels, our recovery score.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they don't track.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the statistics we scrutinise a true reflection of our actual health? Do they boost our daily wellness, or do the multitude of metrics and motivational messages just add to our daily stresses?

A Complicated Bond

"I find myself getting a bit obsessed with mine," an individual admits.

While she values how her device tracks her exercise, she finds some of its other capabilities "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently productive enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a infant, I don't need to be notified I'm tired," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"I could, I suppose, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I value it for its exercise data, but I'm unsure whether the additional features it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of measuring your vitals and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use detectors on the back of the watch.

They typically shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can observe pulsation, recording your pulse rate. More advanced devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

A Fine Balance

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - 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 newer wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to interpret these readings is complex. The expert fears that as more functions are incorporated, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

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

A clinical psychologist focusing on patient behaviour concurs. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a specific group 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 observed a cycle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse increased. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their reading rose further.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."