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An atmosphere of building tension. Apparent is the chilled vapour coming from my fellow runners as they execute the "pre-race" shuffle on the starting line.

A quick flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I must start my tracker. As does the person next to me.

The person waiting tuts. I'm not moving until… yes! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

In the mele, it's challenging to spot a person without a smartwatch on it. And it's not just us runners who use them.

We're witnessing a explosive, multi-billion dollar sector. Names like Apple Watch dominate, all offering an wide range of various versions to suit a range of needs. According to how advanced the device you select, price tags can start from a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

"It makes me crazy, I'm unable to switch off."

"It reassures me… It feels like a supporter guiding me."

"Please don't notify me about a restless night."

Just some of the reactions people have shared from other smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they think of theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on mine? Right now, annoying. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the trees I'm running below are disrupting my location tracking.

A vast number of us attach these compact monitors onto our arms and use them 24/7, apparently comfortable with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Long past are the days when we depended on them only to give us an estimation of our pedometer reading. Currently, they can analyse our sleep patterns, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

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

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the data points we obsess over a faithful picture of reality? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the multitude of metrics and constant notifications just add to our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

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

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

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was failing to be productive enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a young baby, there's no point to be informed I've not slept," she says. "I know that only too well."

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I'm in this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I value it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the most use sensors on the back of the watch.

They typically emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can detect capillary action, recording your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to gauge your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities 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 electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal signals in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not automatically signal someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a stroke in the future.

But how to understand these readings is not straightforward. The expert concerns that as more functions 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 positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM went up. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their reading went up again.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."