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A sense of feeling of anticipation. Apparent is the frosty air coming from my fellow runners as they do the "starting line" wiggle on the start line.

A rapid movement of the hips.

I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I must sort my watch. The same goes for the runner next to me.

The person in the line tuts. I won't start until… yes! GPS ready, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's hard to find a arm without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us participants who wear them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion dollar sector. Companies like Apple Watch lead the market, each with an extensive array of different models to cater to a spectrum of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the watch you choose, costs can start from £100 to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, it's impossible to switch off."

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

"Stop telling me I've had a restless night."

A small sample of the reactions I've had from fellow smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Currently, frustrating. It's telling me I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the overhead branches I'm running below are disrupting my GPS connection.

Millions of us attach these little gadgets onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them only to give us an rough count of our step count. Currently, they can measure our sleep patterns, stress levels, glucose levels, our recovery score.

It's a challenge to find a health indicator they aren't designed to measure.

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the statistics we obsess over a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they improve our overall health, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Complicated Bond

"I become a quite fixated with mine," one user confesses.

While she loves how her device tracks her workouts, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently active enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a infant, it's unnecessary for me to be told I've not slept," she says. "I know that only too well."

Couldn't she just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I've got this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, but I'm unsure whether the additional features it can now do is maybe too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own unique way of measuring your vitals and analysing your data, but the most use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually shine small, green LED lights onto your arm which can observe capillary action, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the skin conductance that flows through the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically aid early diagnosis, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

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 heart problem in the years to come.

But how to understand these figures is not straightforward. The expert worries that as further capabilities are introduced, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I remain sceptical that being able to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A health researcher specialising in cardiology echoes this sentiment. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a set of heart condition patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "had a higher tendency to use medical services".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate went up. They got more worried. They checked again, and their heart rate increased again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."