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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. Apparent is the frosty air emanating from my competitors as they execute the "about to run" wiggle on the beginning point.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm at my local 5km community parkrun and I'm serious. It's almost time...

Hold on. I must sort my watch. So does the person next to me.

The person behind us expresses impatience. I'm not moving until… yes! Connection established, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to spot a arm without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us runners who use them.

It's a thriving, massive industry. Brands like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, each with an extensive range of different versions to cater to a spectrum of lifestyles. Based on how advanced the device you go for, costs can range from £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It drives me insane, I can't relax."

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

"Stop telling me I've had a restless night."

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

The Monitoring Conundrum

My feelings on mine? Right now, irritating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the trees I'm running below are blocking my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us fasten these small gadgets onto our wrists and wear them constantly, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Long past are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an rough count of our pedometer reading. Now, they can analyse our nightly rest, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

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

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the data points we analyse a true reflection of our actual health? Do they boost our overall health, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just increase our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a quite obsessed with mine," one user admits.

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

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was not being productive enough. Now, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I've got a six-month old, there's no point to be notified I've not slept," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she continues. "I love it for its fitness insights, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of measuring your vitals and analysing your data, but the majority use sensors on the back of the watch.

They commonly shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can detect pulsation, recording your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to assess your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically prevent illness, "detecting disease before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which regularly monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to interpret these figures is complicated. The expert concerns that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

"I remain sceptical that being able to monitor so many metrics is such a good idea," he says.

A clinical psychologist studying patient behaviour concurs. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a set of individuals with health issues suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their pulse increased. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety rose further.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."