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A sense of building tension. I can see the frosty air emanating from my fellow runners as they perform the "starting line" shuffle on the starting line.

A quick movement of the hips.

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

Hold on. I must start my watch. The same goes for the guy alongside me.

The person in the line sighs. I'm not moving until… done! Connection established, I'm off.

In the mele, it's hard to find a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us athletes who rely on them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Names like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, all offering an extensive range of diverse versions to suit a range of needs. According to how feature-packed the model you go for, costs can range from a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

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

"It provides solace… It's like a friend supporting me."

"Please don't notify me I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the reactions people have shared from other device users when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on my own device? At this moment, annoying. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are interfering with my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us fasten these small devices onto our arms and keep them on 24/7, apparently at ease with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them exclusively to give us an estimation of our step count. Today, they can analyse our sleep patterns, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

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 numbers we obsess over a true reflection of reality? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of metrics and cheerleading alerts just add to our daily stresses?

A Complicated Bond

"I become a a little obsessed with mine," a wearer admits.

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

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was not being productive enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

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

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"I could, perhaps, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your vitals and processing your data, but the most use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically emit small, green LED lights onto your skin which can detect capillary action, detecting your pulse rate. More advanced devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

A professor says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually aid early diagnosis, "detecting disease before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the future.

But how to interpret these numbers is not straightforward. The expert fears that as additional features are added, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in patient behaviour concurs. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they saw a concerning reading on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse went up. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their anxiety increased again.

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