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An atmosphere of building tension. Visible is the cold breath emanating from my fellow runners as they execute the "about to run" wiggle on the beginning point.

A quick flick of the hips.

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

Oh, hang on. I need to sort my tracker. As does the person next to me.

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

In the mele, it's hard to see a wrist without a fitness tracker on it. And this extends beyond us runners who rely on them.

We're witnessing a booming, massive sector. Names like Garmin dominate, each with an extensive array of different versions to fit a variety of budgets. According to how high tech the device you go for, costs can start from a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"It drives me insane, I can't switch off."

"It comforts me… It feels like a supporter supporting me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a poor sleep."

Just some of the responses people have shared from other smartwatch wearers when I question what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's telling me my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are interfering with my location tracking.

Millions of us attach these little devices onto our arms and use them 24/7, seemingly at ease with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them only to give us an idea of our step count. Currently, they can measure our sleep patterns, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they don't track.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the numbers we analyse a accurate representation of the truth? Do they boost our overall health, or do the plethora of measurements and constant notifications just add to our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I become a a little fixated with mine," one user admits.

While she appreciates how her device tracks her runs, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Prior to discovering she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was not being energetic enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I am caring for a young baby, I don't need to be told my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I value it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your vitals and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use detectors on the underside of the watch.

They typically shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can observe pulsation, recording your heartbeat. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically prevent illness, "detecting disease before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can perform tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not automatically signal someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the future.

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

"I'm not entirely convinced that having the capacity to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A professor focusing on wearable tech concurs. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced greater stress and were "had a higher tendency to use healthcare resources".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety went up again.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."