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An atmosphere of building tension. I can see the chilled vapour emanating from my rivals as they execute the "starting line" shuffle on the starting line.

A quick flick of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Oh, hang on. I must adjust my device. As does the runner alongside me.

The person in the line sighs. I refuse to go until… there! Signal acquired, I'm off.

In the mele, it's challenging to find a wrist without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us runners who wear them.

It's a booming, massive industry. Names like Apple Watch are prevalent, featuring an wide range of diverse devices to fit a spectrum of budgets. Depending on how advanced the watch you select, price tags can range from an affordable sum to a small fortune.

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

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

"Stop telling me I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

Just some of the comments people have shared from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My thoughts on mine? Right now, annoying. It's telling me I'm off pace, making me wonder whether the trees I'm passing under are blocking my satellite signal.

Millions of us fasten these little gadgets onto our wrists and use them 24/7, seemingly at ease with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them only to give us an estimation of our step count. Now, they can measure our nightly rest, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a bodily function 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 faithful picture of reality? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of readings and motivational messages just increase our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she appreciates how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.

Before she realised she could change its configuration, her smartwatch kept telling her she was being insufficiently productive enough. In a new phase, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a six-month old, I don't need to be notified my sleep was poor," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just stop wearing it?

"I could, theoretically, but I have this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its exercise data, I sometimes question whether all the other things it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

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

They typically emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor pulsation, identifying your heartbeat. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to assess your stress levels.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we notice anything", it could also turn us device users into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can perform tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate 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 years to come.

But how to interpret these numbers is not straightforward. The expert worries that as additional features are introduced, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that being able to monitor so many things is such a positive development," he says.

A professor studying patient behaviour concurs. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined to use medical services".

She identified a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM rose. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their heart rate rose further.

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."