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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. Visible is the chilled vapour emanating from my competitors as they perform the "pre-race" jiggle on the start line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local 5km community parkrun and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Oh, hang on. I have to start my device. The same goes for the runner beside me.

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

During the scramble, it's hard to find a person without a fitness tracker on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who wear them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion dollar market. Names like Garmin lead the market, featuring an broad selection of diverse devices to suit a spectrum of budgets. Depending on how advanced the model you choose, costs can range from a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

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

"It reassures me… It acts as a companion supporting me."

"Stop telling me about a bad night's sleep."

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

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? At this moment, frustrating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the trees I'm passing under are blocking my satellite signal.

A vast number of us fasten these small devices onto our wrists and wear them all day and night, seemingly at ease with the fact they're continuously recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them only to give us an estimation of our daily steps. Now, they can track our nightly rest, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they say they do? And are the statistics we analyse a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the multitude of readings and constant notifications just increase our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

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

While she appreciates how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently productive enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a restless night.

"I have a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be informed I've not slept," she says. "I know that perfectly well."

Couldn't she just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I value it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Different brands of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your vitals and interpreting your data, but the vast bulk use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually shine minute LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor pulsation, detecting your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically aid early diagnosis, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us device users into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the future.

But how to make sense of these readings is not straightforward. The expert concerns that as more functions are added, people may find it hard to fully contextualise their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many things is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their heart rate rose. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their reading increased again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a vicious cycle."