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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. Visible is the cold breath emanating from my competitors as they execute the "about to run" jiggle on the beginning point.

A swift twitch of the hips.

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

Wait a second. I must sort my tracker. So does the runner beside me.

The person waiting expresses impatience. I won't start until… there! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

In the mele, it's difficult to find a arm without a wearable on it. And it's not just us athletes who wear them.

We're witnessing a booming, multi-billion pound sector. Brands like Samsung Galaxy dominate, all offering an extensive range of diverse versions to fit a range of budgets. According to how high tech the model you choose, costs can range from an affordable sum to a small fortune.

"I find it infuriating, I'm unable to stop checking."

"It comforts me… It acts as a supporter encouraging me."

"Stop telling me about a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the reactions people have shared from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My feelings on mine? At this moment, irritating. It's reporting I'm off pace, leading me to doubt whether the trees I'm passing under are interfering with my GPS connection.

A vast number of us fasten these small gadgets onto our arms and wear them constantly, seemingly unconcerned with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

Long past are the days when we used them only to give us an idea of our step count. Now, they can track our sleep quality, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they claim to do? And are the numbers we scrutinise a true reflection of the truth? Do they improve our overall health, or do the multitude of measurements and constant notifications just contribute to our daily stresses?

A Complicated Bond

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

While she appreciates how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was not being active enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I have a infant, I don't need to be informed I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Couldn't she just remove it?

"I suppose I could, I suppose, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

Inside the Device

Different brands of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your vitals and processing your data, but the majority use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can detect capillary action, detecting your BPM. Higher-end devices measure changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to assess your stress levels.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which regularly monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal impulses 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 early warning they might be more vulnerable of a heart problem in the future.

But how to make sense of these readings is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions are incorporated, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that being able to monitor so much data is such a good idea," he says.

A professor focusing on cardiology concurs. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM rose. They got more worried. They checked again, and their heart rate went up again.

"Upon viewing stats 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 vicious cycle."