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An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. I can see the chilled vapour coming from my competitors as they perform the "about to run" wiggle on the beginning point.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Hold on. I have to adjust my tracker. The same goes for the runner next to me.

The person waiting tuts. I won't start until… there! GPS ready, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's hard to see a person without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us runners who rely on them.

We're witnessing a thriving, multi-billion pound industry. Brands like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, featuring an broad selection of various devices to suit a variety of budgets. Depending on how advanced the model you go for, price tags can start from an affordable sum to thousands of pounds.

"It makes me crazy, I can't switch off."

"It reassures me… It's like a companion supporting me."

"Stop telling me I've had a restless night."

A small sample of the reactions people have shared from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I ask what they think of theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on mine? Currently, frustrating. It's indicating my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the trees I'm passing under are interfering with my satellite signal.

Millions of us fasten these small gadgets onto our wrists and keep them on constantly, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Gone are the days when we depended on them exclusively to give us an idea of our step count. Currently, they can track our nightly rest, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the data points we scrutinise a faithful picture of our actual health? Do they boost our overall health, or do the plethora of readings and motivational messages just contribute to our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a a little obsessed with mine," one user admits.

While she values how her device tracks her workouts, she finds some of its other capabilities "daunting" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a significant period.

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently active enough. Now, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be informed I'm tired," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I could, I suppose, but I have this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I value it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Different brands of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your health metrics and interpreting your data, but the most use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can detect capillary action, recording your heartbeat. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that flows through the skin to gauge your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us device users into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not automatically signal someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the years to come.

But how to understand these figures is not straightforward. The expert fears that as further capabilities are added, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that being able to monitor so many things is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist studying cardiology concurs. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of individuals with health issues suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She observed a cycle with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They felt anxious. Their BPM rose. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their heart rate increased again.

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."