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A sense of nervous excitement. Apparent is the chilled vapour coming from my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" wiggle on the start line.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm at my local 5km community parkrun and I'm serious. Three, two, one...

Hold on. I have to adjust my device. So does the guy beside me.

The person waiting tuts. I won't start until… done! GPS ready, I'm off.

In the mele, it's challenging to find a person without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us athletes who rely on them.

We're witnessing a explosive, multi-billion pound industry. Brands like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, all offering an extensive range of various versions to fit a range of budgets. Depending on how high tech the device you go for, price tags can vary between a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

"It makes me crazy, I'm unable to relax."

"It reassures me… It's like a supporter supporting me."

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a restless night."

Just some of the comments people have shared from like-minded device users when I question what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on mine? Right now, frustrating. It's indicating my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the overhead branches along my route are disrupting my location tracking.

Millions of us strap these little devices onto our wrists and keep them on 24/7, apparently comfortable with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them exclusively to give us an idea of our daily steps. Currently, they can analyse our nightly rest, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our VO2 max.

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the numbers we analyse a accurate representation of reality? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the plethora of readings and motivational messages just increase our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

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

While she values how her device tracks her workouts, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently active enough. In a new phase, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be informed I'm tired," she says. "I know that only too well."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"I could, I suppose, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is possibly too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your bodily functions and processing your data, but the most use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually shine small, green LED lights onto your arm which can observe capillary action, identifying your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to gauge your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially save lives, "detecting disease before we notice anything", it could also turn us device users into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more at risk of a stroke in the years to come.

But how to make sense of these figures is not straightforward. The expert worries that as additional features are added, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that having the capacity to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A health researcher specialising in cardiology concurs. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a set of individuals with health issues suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced greater stress and were "more inclined to use doctor's time".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they spotted a alarming metric on their watch. They felt anxious. Their BPM increased. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their reading went up again.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."