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An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. Apparent is the chilled vapour coming from my competitors as they perform the "about to run" shuffle on the starting line.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local 5km community parkrun and I'm focused. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I must sort my device. So does the person next to me.

The person in the line expresses impatience. I won't start until… yes! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

In the mele, it's hard to find a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us athletes who rely on them.

This is a explosive, massive market. Brands like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, featuring an wide selection of diverse versions to suit a variety of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the watch you select, costs can start from an affordable sum to thousands of pounds.

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

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

"Please don't notify me I've had a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the comments I've received from other smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My current opinion on my own device? Right now, frustrating. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the trees I'm running below are blocking my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us fasten these compact gadgets onto our wrists and use them 24/7, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're continuously monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them solely to give us an estimation of our step count. Today, they can analyse our sleep quality, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

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

But do they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we obsess over a accurate representation of the truth? Do they enhance our overall health, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just increase our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she appreciates how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other features "daunting" 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 failing to be energetic enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I've got a young baby, there's no point to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she continues. "I value it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of tracking your health metrics and processing your data, but the vast bulk use sensors on the back of the watch.

They typically shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can monitor blood flow, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to assess your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean 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 years to come.

But how to understand these numbers is complex. The expert fears that as more functions are introduced, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

"I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A professor studying patient behaviour concurs. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced greater stress and were "had a higher tendency to use medical services".

She noted a cycle with her patients - they saw a concerning reading on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM went up. They got more worried. They looked a second time, and their heart rate rose further.

"If we see numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We check, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."