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There's a building tension. Visible is the frosty air exhaled by my fellow runners as they do the "starting line" wiggle on the start line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I need to adjust my device. So does the person next to me.

The person behind us expresses impatience. I refuse to go until… there! GPS ready, and I'm running.

Amidst the crowd, it's hard to see a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us participants who rely on them.

It's a booming, multi-billion dollar industry. Companies like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, featuring an wide selection of various models to fit a range of budgets. Depending on how feature-packed the model you go for, prices can range from a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to stop checking."

"It reassures me… It's like a companion encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me I've experienced a restless night."

A small sample of the comments people have shared from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I question what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on my own device? At this moment, irritating. It's telling me my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the foliage along my route are blocking my satellite signal.

A vast number of us strap these little monitors onto our wrists and wear them all day and night, ostensibly unconcerned with the fact they're continuously monitoring us.

Long past are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Today, they can analyse our nightly rest, stress levels, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

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

But can they do what they say they do? And are the data points we scrutinise a true reflection of our actual health? Do they improve our overall health, or do the plethora of measurements and motivational messages just increase our daily stresses?

A Complicated Bond

"I do get a a little obsessed with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she loves how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other features "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a pregnancy.

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

"I've got a young baby, there's no point to be informed I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I could, perhaps, but I have this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I love it for its exercise data, but I'm unsure whether the additional features it can now do is maybe too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the most use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They commonly emit minute LED lights onto your arm which can observe pulsation, recording your BPM. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

A data scientist says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the continuously improving tech could potentially save lives, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us the tracked into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which regularly monitor how normal the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular impulses in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not automatically signal someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to interpret these figures is not straightforward. The expert worries that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

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

A clinical psychologist studying wearable tech concurs. A study into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of individuals with health issues suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "had a higher tendency to use doctor's time".

She observed a cycle with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their reading went up again.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."