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A sense of building tension. I can see the chilled vapour emanating from my competitors as they do the "starting line" shuffle on the starting line.

A quick flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. Three, two, one...

Wait a second. I have to start my device. As does the guy beside me.

The person in the line tuts. I'm not moving until… there! Connection established, and I'm running.

Amidst the crowd, it's challenging 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 industry. Brands like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, featuring an extensive selection of different models to fit a spectrum of lifestyles. Depending on how feature-packed the model you choose, costs can vary between £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It makes me crazy, I'm unable to switch off."

"It comforts me… It acts as a friend encouraging me."

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

A small sample of the responses I've received from other device users when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on mine? At this moment, irritating. It's indicating I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the overhead branches along my route are interfering with my GPS connection.

Countless individuals of us attach these little monitors onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them only to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Today, they can measure our nightly rest, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

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

But are they able to do what they claim to do? And are the data points we scrutinise a true reflection of the truth? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of metrics and constant notifications just increase our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a quite preoccupied with mine," one user confesses.

While she values how her device monitors her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was not being productive enough. Now, the watch frequently reports 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 know that only too well."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I love it for its exercise data, but I'm unsure whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your vitals and analysing your data, but the majority use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They commonly project minute LED lights onto your skin which can observe blood flow, recording your heartbeat. More advanced devices detect changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially prevent illness, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to interpret these numbers is complex. The expert concerns that as additional features are added, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that having the capacity to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A professor specialising in wearable tech echoes this sentiment. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She observed a cycle with her patients - they saw a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse went up. They got more worried. They checked again, and their anxiety went up again.

"If we see data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we obsess - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."