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

A swift flick of the hips.

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

Oh, hang on. I have to sort my watch. The same goes for the guy next to me.

The person behind us tuts. I refuse to go until… done! GPS ready, away I go.

During the scramble, it's difficult to spot a wrist without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who rely on them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion pound sector. Names like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, featuring an broad selection of diverse devices to fit a variety of budgets. According to how advanced the watch you select, prices can range from a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

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

"It comforts me… It's like a supporter encouraging me."

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a restless night."

A handful of the reactions people have shared from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

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

Millions of us strap these small gadgets onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, seemingly unconcerned with the fact they're constantly recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them only to give us an rough count of our daily steps. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they aren't designed to measure.

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the numbers we obsess over a true reflection of our actual health? Do they boost our overall health, or do the plethora of metrics and cheerleading alerts just contribute to our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a bit obsessed with mine," a wearer confesses.

While she loves how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a significant period.

Prior to discovering she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was not being energetic enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be notified I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware only too well."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Different brands of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your vitals and analysing your data, but the most use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically shine small, green LED lights onto your skin which can monitor pulsation, identifying your BPM. Higher-end devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we notice anything", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic signals 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 vulnerable of a blood clot in the long term.

But how to make sense of these figures is complicated. The expert concerns that as more functions are introduced, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

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

A health researcher focusing on patient behaviour agrees. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a set of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM increased. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety went up again.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, understandably, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a vicious cycle."