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A sense of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the cold breath coming from my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" shuffle on the beginning point.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Oh, hang on. I have to start my tracker. The same goes for the runner beside me.

The person waiting expresses impatience. I refuse to go until… done! GPS ready, and I'm running.

Amidst the crowd, it's hard to find a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us athletes who use them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion dollar market. Companies like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, featuring an extensive selection of various devices to fit a variety of budgets. Depending on how high tech the watch you choose, prices can vary between a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to switch off."

"It comforts me… It's like a supporter supporting me."

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

A small sample of the comments I've had from fellow device users when I ask what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on mine? Currently, annoying. It's telling me I'm off pace, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm running below are disrupting my location tracking.

A vast number of us attach these small monitors onto our arms and use them 24/7, apparently at ease with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

Gone are the days when we used them only to give us an estimation of our pedometer reading. Now, they can measure our sleep patterns, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

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

But do they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we scrutinise a accurate representation of the truth? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the plethora of measurements and constant notifications just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a a little fixated with mine," one user reveals.

While she loves how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently active enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a young baby, there's no point to be told I'm tired," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I appreciate it for its fitness insights, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of measuring your health metrics and processing your data, but the most use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically emit minute LED lights onto your arm which can detect pulsation, detecting your BPM. Higher-end devices measure changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically aid early diagnosis, "identifying issues 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 heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a stroke in the future.

But how to interpret these figures is not straightforward. The expert concerns that as further capabilities are added, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in cardiology concurs. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She identified a pattern with her patients - they spotted a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate went up. They got more worried. They looked a second time, and their anxiety went up again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."