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A sense of nervous excitement. I can see the cold breath emanating from my rivals as they execute the "about to run" jiggle on the beginning point.

A rapid movement of the hips.

I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. Three, two, one...

Wait a second. I must start my tracker. The same goes for the person beside me.

The person in the line sighs. I won't start until… yes! GPS ready, and I'm running.

Amidst the crowd, it's challenging to see a wrist without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who wear them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion dollar industry. Brands like Garmin lead the market, all offering an broad selection of diverse versions to fit a variety of lifestyles. Based on how feature-packed the watch you choose, costs can vary between an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It drives me insane, I'm unable to relax."

"It reassures me… It acts as a supporter guiding me."

"Stop telling me I've experienced a poor sleep."

A handful of the reactions people have shared from fellow smartwatch wearers when I ask what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are disrupting my GPS connection.

A vast number of us attach these small gadgets onto our arms and wear them all day and night, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're perpetually monitoring us.

Long past are the days when we used them solely to give us an rough count of our step count. Currently, they can track our nightly rest, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our VO2 max.

It's a challenge to find a health indicator they aren't designed to measure.

But can they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we obsess over a faithful picture of our actual health? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the multitude of readings and constant notifications just increase our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I become a quite fixated with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she loves how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Before she realised she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be active enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a poor sleep score.

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

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"I could, theoretically, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I love it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

Inside the Device

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your vitals and analysing your data, but the most use detectors on the back of the watch.

They usually shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can monitor pulsation, identifying your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the skin conductance that flows through the skin to gauge your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

A data scientist says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically save lives, "detecting disease before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform tests like heart rhythm analysis, which regularly monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the long term.

But how to interpret these numbers is complex. The expert concerns that as further capabilities are added, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that having the capacity to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A health researcher studying patient behaviour concurs. Research 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 heart health experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they saw a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM rose. They got increasingly anxious. They checked again, and their anxiety went up again.

"When people are presented with numbers 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."