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An atmosphere of building tension. Apparent is the frosty air exhaled by my fellow runners as they perform the "starting line" jiggle on the start line.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. Three, two, one...

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

The person in the line tuts. I refuse to go until… yes! Connection established, I'm off.

In the mele, it's challenging to see a wrist without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us participants who wear them.

This is a booming, multi-billion dollar industry. Companies like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, featuring an wide selection of various models to fit a spectrum of lifestyles. Based on how high tech the device you select, costs can vary between an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It drives me insane, it's impossible to relax."

"It reassures me… It feels like a friend supporting me."

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

A handful of the comments I've had from like-minded device users when I question what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My current opinion on my own device? Right now, irritating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the overhead branches along my route are blocking my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us strap these compact devices onto our wrists and keep them on 24/7, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them only to give us an rough count of our daily steps. Currently, they can track our nightly rest, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a physical metric they aren't designed to measure.

But can they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we obsess over a faithful picture of reality? Do they boost our daily wellness, or do the multitude of readings and cheerleading alerts just increase our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a quite obsessed with mine," an individual confesses.

While she appreciates how her device tracks her exercise, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a significant period.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was not being energetic enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I am caring for a young baby, there's no point to be informed I'm tired," she says. "I know that only too well."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your vitals and processing your data, but the most use optical sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually emit small, green LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor capillary action, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which constantly monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to interpret these figures is complex. The expert concerns that as further capabilities are introduced, people may struggle to fully understand their data.

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

A professor focusing on wearable tech agrees. Research into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their pulse went up. They got more worried. They looked a second time, and their heart rate increased again.

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