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There's a feeling of anticipation. Apparent is the chilled vapour exhaled by my fellow runners as they execute the "pre-race" 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...

Hold on. I have to start my tracker. As does the runner beside me.

The person waiting tuts. I won't start until… done! Connection established, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to see a arm without a wearable on it. And it's not just us runners who wear them.

We're witnessing a thriving, massive market. Companies like Garmin are prevalent, all offering an wide array of different devices to suit a range of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the model you select, price tags can start from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, I can't stop checking."

"It provides solace… It feels like a friend supporting me."

"Stop telling me I've had a poor sleep."

A handful of the responses people have shared from other device users when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Currently, frustrating. It's indicating my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the foliage I'm passing under are disrupting my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us fasten these compact devices onto our arms and wear them constantly, apparently comfortable with the fact they're perpetually monitoring us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them only to give us an idea of our daily steps. Today, they can measure our sleep quality, stress levels, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they say they do? And are the data points we scrutinise a accurate representation of reality? Do they improve our overall health, or do the plethora of metrics and cheerleading alerts just increase our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I become a a little obsessed with mine," an individual admits.

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

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was not being energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a six-month old, I don't need to be told I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, but I'm unsure whether the additional features it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your vitals and interpreting your data, but the majority use detectors on the back of the watch.

They commonly shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can detect pulsation, recording your BPM. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to assess your nervous system activity.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could potentially prevent illness, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us the tracked into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a stroke in the long term.

But how to make sense of these readings is not straightforward. The expert concerns that as additional features are introduced, people may not be able to fully comprehend their data.

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

A clinical psychologist focusing on wearable tech concurs. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM increased. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their anxiety rose further.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."