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There's a nervous excitement. Apparent is the cold breath emanating from my competitors as they do the "starting line" jiggle on the starting line.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local 5km community parkrun and I'm focused. Three, two, one...

Hold on. I have to start my watch. So does the person beside me.

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

During the scramble, it's difficult to see a arm without a wearable on it. And it's not just us runners who use them.

We're witnessing a thriving, multi-billion pound industry. Brands like Samsung Galaxy dominate, featuring an extensive array of various versions to fit a variety of lifestyles. Depending on how feature-packed the watch you select, costs can range from an affordable sum to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to relax."

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

"Please don't notify me about a bad night's sleep."

Just some of the comments I've received from other tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My thoughts on mine? At this moment, frustrating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are interfering with my location tracking.

Millions of us attach these small devices onto our arms and use them constantly, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we relied on them only to give us an estimation of our daily steps. Today, they can measure our sleep patterns, heart rate, glucose levels, our recovery score.

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

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the numbers we analyse a true reflection of reality? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the plethora of measurements and constant notifications just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a a little preoccupied with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she appreciates how her device tracks her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling first discovered during a significant period.

Prior to discovering she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently active 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 my sleep was poor," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Couldn't she just stop wearing it?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I value it for its exercise data, but I'm unsure whether the additional features it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own unique way of measuring your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the most use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically project minute LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor blood flow, detecting your BPM. More advanced devices measure changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to assess your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially save lives, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a heart problem in the future.

But how to interpret these numbers is not straightforward. The expert concerns that as additional features are introduced, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that being able to monitor so many metrics is such a positive development," he says.

A health researcher focusing on cardiology echoes this sentiment. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a set of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use medical services".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate increased. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their reading increased again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."