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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. Apparent is the chilled vapour emanating from my fellow runners as they execute the "about to run" jiggle on the beginning point.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I'm serious. The countdown begins...

Hold on. I must sort my watch. So does the runner next to me.

The person waiting expresses impatience. I'm not moving until… done! Connection established, and I'm running.

Amidst the crowd, it's challenging to find a wrist without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us participants who use them.

It's a explosive, massive market. Brands like Apple Watch dominate, each with an wide range of different models to suit a variety of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the model you go for, price tags can range from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, I can't relax."

"It provides solace… It feels like a supporter supporting me."

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

A handful of the comments I've received from other tracker enthusiasts when I question what they feel about theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? Currently, annoying. It's telling me my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the foliage I'm running below are blocking my location tracking.

Millions of us strap these little gadgets onto our arms and wear them constantly, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're continuously tracking us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them solely to give us an rough count of our step count. Now, they can measure our nightly rest, blood pressure, glucose levels, our recovery score.

It's difficult to find a physical metric they don't track.

But can they do what they say they do? And are the statistics we obsess over a accurate representation of the truth? Do they boost our overall health, or do the multitude of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a a little preoccupied with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she values how her device tracks her workouts, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I am caring for a six-month old, I don't need to be told I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware only too well."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, I suppose, but I'm in this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I love it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your vitals and interpreting your data, but the most use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically shine minute LED lights onto your skin which can observe blood flow, identifying your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to assess your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

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

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to make sense of these figures is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions are added, people may find it hard to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that being able to monitor so many metrics is such a good idea," he says.

A professor focusing on wearable tech concurs. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced greater stress and were "more inclined to use medical services".

She noted a cycle with her patients - they spotted a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate rose. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their reading rose further.

"If we see numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."