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There's a building tension. Apparent is the cold breath coming from my fellow runners as they perform the "starting line" wiggle on the starting line.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm at my local 5km community parkrun and I'm focused. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I need to adjust my tracker. As does the person next to me.

The person waiting sighs. I'm not moving until… there! GPS ready, away I go.

Amidst the crowd, it's challenging to spot a wrist without a wearable on it. And it's not just us runners who wear them.

It's a booming, massive industry. Companies like Apple Watch are prevalent, all offering an wide range of various models to cater to a spectrum of budgets. Depending on how advanced the device you select, price tags can start from a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, I'm unable to stop checking."

"It reassures me… It's like a supporter guiding me."

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

A handful of the responses I've received from like-minded tracker enthusiasts when I question what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My current opinion on my own device? Right now, annoying. It's telling me my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the overhead branches I'm running below are interfering with my location tracking.

A vast number of us attach these compact monitors onto our arms and keep them on 24/7, apparently comfortable with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Gone are the days when we used them solely to give us an idea of our step count. Now, they can measure our nightly rest, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

It's difficult to find a health indicator they don't track.

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we obsess over a faithful picture of the truth? Do they boost our daily wellness, or do the plethora of readings and cheerleading alerts just increase our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a a little fixated with mine," one user confesses.

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

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be productive enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I am caring for a six-month old, I don't need to be told I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I love it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your vitals and interpreting your data, but the majority use optical sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They commonly emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can monitor pulsation, identifying your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the skin conductance that flows through the skin to gauge your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which regularly monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not automatically signal someone is about to have a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to understand these readings is complex. The expert worries that as additional features are introduced, people may struggle to fully understand their data.

"I remain sceptical that having the capacity to monitor so much data is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher specialising in wearable tech echoes this sentiment. Research into the impact 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 heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use healthcare resources".

She identified a pattern with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse rose. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their anxiety went up again.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a feedback loop."