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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. I can see the frosty air emanating from my fellow runners as they do the "about to run" jiggle on the starting line.

A swift twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Wait a second. I must adjust my device. As does the runner next to me.

The person behind us sighs. I refuse to go until… there! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

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

We're witnessing a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Names like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, all offering an wide array of various models to suit a range of budgets. According to how feature-packed the watch you select, prices can vary between an affordable sum to a small fortune.

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

"It reassures me… It's like a supporter encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me about a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the reactions I've received from other smartwatch wearers when I question what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My current opinion on mine? Currently, irritating. It's telling me my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm passing under are interfering with my satellite signal.

A vast number of us attach these little monitors onto our arms and wear them all day and night, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're continuously tracking us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an idea of our daily steps. Today, they can measure our nightly rest, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a bodily function they don't track.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the data points we analyse a faithful picture of reality? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of metrics and constant notifications just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I become a bit preoccupied with mine," an individual reveals.

While she appreciates how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a significant period.

Before she realised she could change its configuration, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be energetic enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a young baby, I don't need to be told I've not slept," she says. "I know that only too well."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"I could, I suppose, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of measuring your health metrics and processing your data, but the most use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can observe pulsation, detecting your BPM. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically save lives, "detecting disease before we notice anything", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more vulnerable of a heart problem in the future.

But how to understand these numbers is not straightforward. The expert worries that as more functions are incorporated, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that having the capacity to monitor so many metrics is such a positive development," he says.

A professor specialising in wearable tech concurs. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She identified a vicious circle with her patients - they saw a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their anxiety rose further.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a feedback loop."