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An atmosphere of building tension. Visible is the cold breath emanating from my rivals as they do the "about to run" shuffle on the starting line.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Oh, hang on. I need to adjust my watch. The same goes for the person beside me.

The person waiting expresses impatience. I refuse to go until… yes! GPS ready, away I go.

During the scramble, it's hard to see a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us runners who use them.

This is a explosive, massive sector. Companies like Apple Watch are prevalent, featuring an broad selection of various models to cater to a range of lifestyles. Depending on how feature-packed the device you select, prices can range from a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

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

"It provides solace… It's like a companion guiding me."

"Please don't notify me about a restless night."

Just some of the comments I've had from other smartwatch wearers when I ask what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on mine? Currently, irritating. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the overhead branches along my route are interfering with my location tracking.

A vast number of us attach these little devices onto our arms and keep them on constantly, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Gone are the days when we used them only to give us an idea of our daily steps. Currently, they can analyse our sleep patterns, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the numbers we obsess over a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of metrics and cheerleading alerts just increase our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she values how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was failing to be active enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a infant, there's no point to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"It's possible, theoretically, but I'm in this love-hate relationship with it," she says. "I love it for its exercise data, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is perhaps too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Different brands of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of measuring your bodily functions and processing your data, but the most use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can observe pulsation, detecting your pulse rate. More advanced devices detect changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

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

But how to understand these figures is complex. The expert worries that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may not be able to fully comprehend their data.

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

A health researcher studying patient behaviour agrees. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use doctor's time".

She identified a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate went up. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety increased again.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."