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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. Apparent is the frosty air exhaled by my rivals as they perform the "about to run" jiggle on the starting line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. It's almost time...

Wait a second. I have to adjust my device. So does the runner alongside me.

The person waiting tuts. I refuse to go until… done! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

In the mele, it's hard to see a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And it's not just us runners who use them.

This is a booming, multi-billion dollar sector. Companies like Garmin are prevalent, all offering an broad selection of different versions to suit a range of needs. Depending on how high tech the watch you go for, prices can range from £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It drives me insane, it's impossible to stop checking."

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

"Stop telling me I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the reactions I've had from like-minded tracker enthusiasts when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Right now, irritating. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the trees I'm passing under are blocking my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us strap these compact gadgets onto our wrists and wear them constantly, apparently at ease with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an idea of our step count. Currently, they can measure our sleep quality, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a health indicator they don't track.

But can they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we obsess over a faithful picture of our actual health? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of readings and cheerleading alerts just increase our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a a little fixated with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she loves how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a infant, I don't need to be told I'm tired," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"It's possible, perhaps, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I love it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

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

They typically project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor pulsation, recording your pulse rate. Higher-end devices detect changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

A data scientist says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically aid early diagnosis, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic signals in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the long term.

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

"I'm not entirely convinced that being able to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A professor focusing on patient behaviour concurs. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort 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 cycle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM went up. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety went up again.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."