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An atmosphere of building tension. Visible is the chilled vapour emanating from my rivals as they perform the "starting line" jiggle on the start line.

A rapid movement of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Hold on. I need to adjust my device. As does the person alongside me.

The person in the line sighs. I refuse to go until… yes! Connection established, and I'm running.

Amidst the crowd, it's hard to see a wrist without a wearable on it. And it's not just us athletes who rely on them.

We're witnessing a thriving, massive sector. Brands like Apple Watch are prevalent, featuring an extensive selection of various devices to fit a range of lifestyles. According to how high tech the device you go for, costs can vary between a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, I can't switch off."

"It provides solace… It acts as a supporter guiding me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a bad night's sleep."

Just some of the responses people have shared from other tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they think of theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on my own device? At this moment, irritating. It's indicating my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are blocking my satellite signal.

Millions of us attach these little devices onto our wrists and use them all day and night, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Long past are the days when we depended on them exclusively to give us an rough count of our step count. Today, they can track our sleep patterns, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a bodily function they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the numbers we analyse a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the multitude of measurements and cheerleading alerts just increase our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I do get a bit obsessed with mine," an individual reveals.

While she loves how her device tracks her exercise, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was not being productive enough. In a new phase, the watch keeps telling her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a six-month old, I don't need to be notified I've not slept," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I could, perhaps, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I love it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your vitals and interpreting your data, but the majority use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They commonly shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can detect capillary action, recording your BPM. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to assess your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually save lives, "detecting disease before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which regularly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the future.

But how to interpret these numbers is not straightforward. The expert worries that as further capabilities are added, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on wearable tech agrees. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a set of individuals with health issues suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "had a higher tendency to use medical services".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM rose. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their heart rate went up again.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."