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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my competitors as they execute the "starting line" shuffle on the beginning point.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Hold on. I must adjust my tracker. The same goes for the runner beside me.

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

Amidst the crowd, it's hard to find a wrist without a fitness tracker on it. And it's not just us participants who use them.

It's a booming, massive sector. Names like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, featuring an wide range of diverse models to fit a variety of budgets. Based on how advanced the device you choose, prices can range from a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

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

"It comforts me… It acts as a companion supporting me."

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

Just some of the responses I've received from like-minded device users when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? At this moment, irritating. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the trees along my route are blocking my location tracking.

Millions of us strap these compact gadgets onto our arms and wear them constantly, apparently at ease with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Gone are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an estimation of our step count. Now, they can track our nightly rest, blood pressure, glucose levels, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they don't track.

But can they do what they say they do? And are the statistics we analyse a accurate representation of reality? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the multitude of readings and cheerleading alerts just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she values how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a young baby, there's no point to be told my sleep was poor," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"It's possible, perhaps, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its exercise data, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Each model of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of measuring your vitals and interpreting your data, but the majority use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically shine small, green LED lights onto your skin which can monitor pulsation, detecting your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the electrical current that flows through the skin to gauge your nervous system activity.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially prevent illness, "detecting disease before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a stroke in the future.

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

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

A health researcher focusing on wearable tech echoes this sentiment. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use doctor's time".

She observed a cycle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their pulse increased. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their heart rate increased again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."