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A sense of building tension. Apparent is the cold breath emanating from my competitors as they execute the "starting line" wiggle on the start line.

A swift movement of the hips.

I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Oh, hang on. I need to start my device. So does the runner beside me.

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

Amidst the crowd, it's challenging to see a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us runners who wear them.

This is a explosive, massive market. Companies like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, each with an extensive array of different versions to cater to a variety of budgets. Depending on how advanced the watch you choose, price tags can start from an affordable sum to a small fortune.

"It drives me insane, I can't switch off."

"It provides solace… It's like a supporter encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me about a poor sleep."

A handful of the comments I've received from fellow device users when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? At this moment, frustrating. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm running below are interfering with my location tracking.

A vast number of us strap these compact monitors onto our wrists and keep them on constantly, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

Gone are the days when we depended on them only to give us an estimation of our step count. Currently, they can track our sleep patterns, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they aren't designed to measure.

But can they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we analyse a accurate representation of reality? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of readings and constant notifications just add to our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I do get a a little fixated with mine," a wearer admits.

While she loves how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a significant period.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was failing to be active enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a young baby, there's no point to be told I've not slept," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I could, perhaps, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your health metrics and analysing your data, but the most use detectors on the back of the watch.

They commonly shine minute LED lights onto your skin which can detect capillary action, identifying your pulse rate. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

A data scientist says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically save lives, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like medical-grade monitoring, which regularly monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the future.

But how to interpret these readings is complicated. The expert concerns that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that having the capacity to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A professor studying patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients 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 noted a pattern with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate increased. They got more worried. They checked again, and their heart rate rose further.

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a vicious cycle."