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An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. Apparent is the cold breath emanating from my fellow runners as they do the "about to run" jiggle on the start line.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I'm serious. It's almost time...

Hold on. I need to sort my watch. The same goes for the person next to me.

The person behind us tuts. I'm not moving until… there! Signal acquired, away I go.

In the mele, it's challenging to find a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us runners who use them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion pound market. Companies like Garmin lead the market, all offering an wide selection of different devices to fit a range of lifestyles. Depending on how high tech the model you choose, prices can vary between a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

"It drives me insane, I can't stop checking."

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

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a poor sleep."

A handful of the comments I've had from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, making me wonder whether the trees along my route are disrupting my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us strap these little monitors onto our arms and keep them on 24/7, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Gone are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an estimation of our pedometer reading. Currently, they can measure our sleep patterns, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

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

But do they do what they advertise? And are the statistics we obsess over a faithful picture of our actual health? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just add to our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a quite obsessed with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she appreciates how her device monitors her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling initially realised during a significant period.

Before she realised she could change its configuration, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be active enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a restless night.

"I have a young baby, there's no point to be told I'm tired," she says. "I know that perfectly well."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I could, theoretically, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your health metrics and interpreting your data, but the majority use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can detect capillary action, recording your BPM. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to gauge your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

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 flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the future.

But how to understand these numbers is not straightforward. The expert fears that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may not be able to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a positive development," he says.

A health researcher studying cardiology agrees. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She identified a pattern with her patients - they saw a concerning reading on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM rose. They got more worried. They checked again, and their heart rate increased again.

"If we see numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."