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There's a building tension. I can see the frosty air exhaled by my competitors as they do the "starting line" jiggle on the starting line.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I'm focused. The countdown begins...

Hold on. I have to sort my watch. As does the runner alongside me.

The person behind us sighs. I refuse to go until… yes! GPS ready, away I go.

Amidst the crowd, it's challenging to find a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us participants who wear them.

We're witnessing a thriving, massive market. Names like Garmin dominate, featuring an extensive array of diverse versions to fit a variety of lifestyles. According to how feature-packed the device you choose, costs can vary between an affordable sum to a small fortune.

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

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

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

A handful of the reactions people have shared from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My feelings on my own device? Currently, annoying. It's indicating my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the overhead branches along my route are blocking my GPS connection.

Millions of us fasten these small devices onto our wrists and keep them on constantly, seemingly unconcerned with the fact they're continuously monitoring us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Now, they can track our sleep patterns, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's tricky to find a physical metric they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we analyse a true reflection of our actual health? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a bit obsessed with mine," one user admits.

While she loves how her device tracks her workouts, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be active enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

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

Couldn't she just remove it?

"I could, theoretically, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I value it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether the additional features it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

Inside the Device

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of measuring your bodily functions and processing your data, but the majority use sensors on the back of the watch.

They commonly shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can detect blood flow, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to assess your nervous system activity.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually save lives, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the long term.

But how to make sense of these figures is not straightforward. The expert fears that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may not be able 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 health researcher focusing on cardiology echoes this sentiment. A study 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 cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM rose. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their reading rose further.

"If we see data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we re-check - it becomes a feedback loop."