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A sense of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the frosty air coming from my rivals as they execute the "about to run" shuffle on the beginning point.

A quick movement of the hips.

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

Oh, hang on. I have to start my watch. As does the guy beside me.

The person in the line tuts. I won't start until… done! Connection established, away I go.

In the mele, it's hard to find a wrist without a wearable on it. And it's not just us athletes who wear them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Brands like Garmin dominate, featuring an extensive array of different models to cater to a spectrum of needs. According to how high tech the watch you go for, costs can range from a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to relax."

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

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

A small sample of the reactions people have shared from fellow device users when I ask what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on mine? At this moment, frustrating. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, making me wonder whether the trees I'm running below are interfering with my GPS connection.

A vast number of us fasten these little devices onto our arms and use them constantly, seemingly unconcerned with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them solely to give us an estimation of our daily steps. Currently, they can measure our sleep quality, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they advertise? And are the data points we obsess over a true reflection of reality? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and cheerleading alerts just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a a little fixated with mine," an individual confesses.

While she values how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be active enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I've got a infant, there's no point to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"It's possible, theoretically, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I value it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

Inside the Device

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

They typically emit small, green LED lights onto your skin which can detect blood flow, recording your pulse rate. More advanced devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially prevent illness, "detecting disease before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can perform tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is abnormal impulses in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more vulnerable of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to interpret these figures is complicated. The expert concerns that as more functions are added, people may find it hard to fully contextualise their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that the ability to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A health researcher studying wearable tech echoes this sentiment. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a set of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they spotted a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got more worried. They checked again, and their reading went up again.

"If we see stats 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 obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."