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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. I can see the chilled vapour emanating from my competitors as they do the "pre-race" jiggle on the beginning point.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I'm serious. It's almost time...

Wait a second. I must start my device. So does the guy beside me.

The person in the line tuts. I won't start until… there! GPS ready, away I go.

In the mele, it's challenging to spot a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who wear them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion dollar market. Names like Garmin are prevalent, each with an broad array of diverse versions to fit a range of budgets. Based on how feature-packed the watch you choose, prices can vary between a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, I'm unable to relax."

"It comforts me… It acts as a friend guiding me."

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a restless night."

Just some of the responses people have shared from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I question what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on mine? At this moment, irritating. It's telling me my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the trees I'm passing under are interfering with my location tracking.

A vast number of us fasten these small monitors onto our arms and use them 24/7, seemingly unconcerned with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them exclusively to give us an estimation of our pedometer reading. Today, they can track our nightly rest, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's tricky to find a health indicator they don't track.

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we analyse a faithful picture of reality? Do they boost our overall health, or do the plethora of measurements and constant notifications just increase our daily stresses?

A Complicated Bond

"I find myself getting a a little preoccupied with mine," a wearer confesses.

While she loves how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Before she realised she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently active enough. In a new phase, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I am caring for a infant, I don't need to be told I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Couldn't she just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I value it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Each model of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the most use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They commonly shine minute LED lights onto your arm which can monitor pulsation, recording your BPM. More advanced devices measure changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically aid early diagnosis, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us device users into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic 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 early warning they might be more at risk of a blood clot in the long term.

But how to understand these numbers is complex. The expert worries that as more functions are introduced, people may find it hard to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist studying patient behaviour concurs. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM increased. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their heart rate went up again.

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a vicious cycle."