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An atmosphere of building tension. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my rivals as they perform the "starting line" jiggle on the beginning point.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm at my local 5km community parkrun and I'm serious. Three, two, one...

Hold on. I must start my device. So does the person alongside me.

The person behind us expresses impatience. I won't start until… there! Signal acquired, away I go.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to spot a person without a fitness tracker on it. And it's not just us participants who use them.

It's a explosive, multi-billion pound market. Companies like Apple Watch are prevalent, featuring an extensive array of different versions to suit a spectrum of needs. Based on how high tech the model you go for, prices can start from an affordable sum to a small fortune.

"I find it infuriating, I can't switch off."

"It reassures me… It acts as a friend guiding me."

"Stop telling me I've experienced a poor sleep."

A handful of the reactions I've received from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My current opinion on mine? Currently, annoying. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the foliage along my route are disrupting my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us fasten these compact gadgets onto our arms and use them all day and night, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

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

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they fail to monitor.

But can they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we obsess over a true reflection of reality? Do they boost our overall health, or do the multitude of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a a little fixated with mine," one user admits.

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

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was not being active enough. Now, 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 notified my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is perfectly well."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she says. "I appreciate it for its fitness insights, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly too much for me."

Inside the Device

Every device of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of tracking your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically shine small, green LED lights onto your wrist which can detect capillary action, recording your BPM. Higher-end devices detect changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to assess your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually prevent illness, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more at risk of a blood clot in the future.

But how to make sense of these figures is complex. The expert fears that as further capabilities are introduced, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher specialising in wearable tech concurs. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of individuals with health issues suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use medical services".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate increased. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety increased again.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."