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A sense of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my competitors as they execute the "pre-race" shuffle on the starting line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm participating in my local Saturday morning race and I'm serious. The countdown begins...

Hold on. I have to adjust my device. The same goes for the person beside me.

The person behind us tuts. I'm not moving until… done! Signal acquired, away I go.

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

It's a explosive, multi-billion pound market. Names like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, all offering an broad array of different models to suit a variety of lifestyles. Based on how feature-packed the watch you choose, price tags can vary between a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

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

"It reassures me… It acts as a supporter encouraging me."

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

A handful of the comments I've received from like-minded device users when I ask what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

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

A vast number of us attach these compact monitors onto our wrists and wear them constantly, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Gone are the days when we depended on them exclusively to give us an idea of our step count. Now, they can analyse our sleep quality, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

It's difficult to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the numbers we scrutinise a true reflection of our actual health? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of measurements and motivational messages just add to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she appreciates how her device tracks her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch kept telling her she was not being active enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a infant, it's unnecessary for me to be informed I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"I could, I suppose, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I love it for its fitness insights, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps too much for me."

Inside the Device

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your bodily functions and processing your data, but the vast bulk use sensors on the back of the watch.

They usually project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor capillary action, recording your heartbeat. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the electrical current that flows through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually prevent illness, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag 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 imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the future.

But how to interpret these figures is not straightforward. The expert concerns that as more functions are added, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A health researcher studying patient behaviour concurs. A study into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced greater stress and were "had a higher tendency to use healthcare resources".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM increased. They got increasingly anxious. They checked again, and their reading increased again.

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