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There's a building tension. Visible is the frosty air emanating from my fellow runners as they do the "starting line" jiggle on the start line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local 5km community parkrun and I'm serious. It's almost time...

Hold on. I have to sort my tracker. As does the runner next to me.

The person behind us sighs. I refuse to go until… done! Signal acquired, away I go.

During the scramble, it's hard to spot a arm without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us participants who use them.

We're witnessing a explosive, multi-billion pound sector. Brands like Garmin dominate, all offering an broad selection of different versions to fit a spectrum of lifestyles. Depending on how feature-packed the model you select, costs can start from an affordable sum to a small fortune.

"I find it infuriating, I can't relax."

"It reassures me… It feels like a companion encouraging me."

"I wish it wouldn't say about a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the reactions people have shared from other smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? Right now, annoying. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the overhead branches along my route are disrupting my GPS connection.

Millions of us attach these little devices onto our wrists and use them constantly, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're constantly recording us.

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

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

But do they do what they advertise? And are the statistics we scrutinise a faithful picture of reality? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the multitude of readings and motivational messages just add to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a a little fixated with mine," a wearer admits.

While she loves how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a significant period.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently productive enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be told I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I value it for its exercise data, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your health metrics and processing your data, but the most use optical sensors on the back of the watch.

They usually project minute LED lights onto your skin which can monitor capillary action, recording your BPM. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to assess your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially prevent illness, "detecting disease before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular signals 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 advance notice they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to understand these numbers is complex. The expert fears that as additional features are incorporated, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that having the capacity to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher specialising in patient behaviour concurs. A study 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 condition experienced increased anxiety and were "had a higher tendency to use doctor's time".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their BPM rose. They got more worried. They checked again, and their reading increased again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we re-check - it becomes a vicious cycle."