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There's a building tension. Visible is the frosty air coming from my fellow runners as they do the "starting line" jiggle on the starting line.

A swift flick of the hips.

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

Hold on. I have to sort my tracker. The same goes for the guy beside me.

The person in the line expresses impatience. I won't start until… yes! Connection established, and I'm running.

During the scramble, it's hard to find a arm without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us participants who use them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion pound market. Companies like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, featuring an broad selection of different models to suit a spectrum of lifestyles. According to how feature-packed the device you select, prices can vary between an affordable sum to a small fortune.

"I find it infuriating, I can't relax."

"It provides solace… It's like a supporter guiding me."

"Stop telling me about a bad night's sleep."

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

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? Right now, irritating. It's indicating I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the foliage along my route are interfering with my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us strap these small monitors onto our arms and wear them constantly, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Gone are the days when we depended on them only to give us an idea of our daily steps. Currently, they can track our sleep patterns, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

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

But do they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we analyse a true reflection of the truth? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the plethora of metrics and cheerleading alerts just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a bit fixated with mine," one user admits.

While she appreciates how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" 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 being insufficiently productive enough. Now, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a six-month old, there's no point to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"I could, theoretically, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is perhaps too much for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of measuring your vitals and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They usually shine minute LED lights onto your skin which can monitor capillary action, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially aid early diagnosis, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not automatically signal someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the future.

But how to make sense of these figures is complex. The expert fears that as more functions are added, people may not be able to fully comprehend their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a positive development," he says.

A professor focusing on cardiology agrees. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a set of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced increased anxiety and were "had a higher tendency to use doctor's time".

She identified a pattern with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM went up. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their reading went up again.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a feedback loop."