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A sense of building tension. Apparent is the frosty air exhaled by my rivals as they execute the "about to run" wiggle on the starting line.

A swift twitch of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I must adjust my device. As does the runner next to me.

The person behind us expresses impatience. I won't start until… there! GPS ready, I'm off.

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

It's a explosive, multi-billion pound market. Companies like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, all offering an broad array of various models to suit a variety of budgets. Depending on how feature-packed the device you go for, prices can range from £100 to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, I can't switch off."

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

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the responses I've received from like-minded device users when I ask what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on mine? Currently, irritating. It's indicating I'm off pace, making me wonder whether the trees along my route are blocking my GPS connection.

Countless individuals of us strap these little devices onto our arms and keep them on 24/7, apparently comfortable with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Long past are the days when we used them only to give us an rough count of our daily steps. Today, they can track our nightly rest, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

It's tricky to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the numbers we analyse a true reflection of our actual health? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of readings and motivational messages just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Complicated Bond

"I do get a a little fixated with mine," one user confesses.

While she loves how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other features "daunting" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be energetic enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a infant, I don't need to be notified I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Couldn't she just remove it?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the most use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They commonly project minute LED lights onto your skin which can observe capillary action, identifying your heartbeat. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the electrical current that flows through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically prevent illness, "detecting disease before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

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

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

"I have some doubts that being able to monitor so much data is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A health researcher specialising in cardiology concurs. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use medical services".

She identified a vicious circle with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their reading increased again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a feedback loop."