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There's a nervous excitement. I can see the cold breath exhaled by my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" shuffle on the starting line.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Hold on. I must sort my device. The same goes for the runner alongside me.

The person in the line sighs. I won't start until… done! GPS ready, away I go.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to find a wrist without a wearable on it. And it's not just us athletes who rely on them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion pound market. Brands like Garmin lead the market, each with an extensive array of various models to fit a variety of lifestyles. Depending on how advanced the watch you select, costs can range from £100 to a small fortune.

"It drives me insane, I'm unable to switch off."

"It reassures me… It feels like a companion supporting me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a restless night."

A small sample of the comments people have shared from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? Currently, irritating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the trees I'm running below are blocking my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us attach these small monitors onto our wrists and keep them on 24/7, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them exclusively to give us an idea of our daily steps. Now, they can track our sleep quality, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our VO2 max.

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

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the numbers we scrutinise a accurate representation of reality? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the multitude of metrics and constant notifications just add to our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I find myself getting a bit preoccupied with mine," an individual admits.

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

Prior to discovering she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be productive enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a young baby, there's no point to be informed I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I love it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is maybe too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of monitoring your vitals and processing your data, but the vast bulk use detectors on the underside of the watch.

They commonly project small, green LED lights onto your skin which can observe capillary action, recording your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

A data scientist says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the continuously improving tech could potentially aid early diagnosis, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which constantly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is abnormal signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the years to come.

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

"I remain sceptical that having the capacity to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A health researcher focusing on wearable tech concurs. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced increased anxiety and were "had a higher tendency to use healthcare resources".

She identified a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their pulse went up. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their heart rate rose further.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a feedback loop."