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An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my fellow runners as they execute the "pre-race" jiggle on the starting line.

A swift twitch of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Wait a second. I must sort my device. The same goes for the person alongside me.

The person behind us tuts. I won't start until… there! Signal acquired, away I go.

During the scramble, it's difficult to find a arm without a fitness tracker on it. And this extends beyond us runners who rely on them.

We're witnessing a explosive, massive industry. Brands like Garmin lead the market, each with an wide selection of different devices to cater to a range of needs. Based on how high tech the device you go for, price tags can range from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to stop checking."

"It comforts me… It's like a friend encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me I've experienced a poor sleep."

A small sample of the comments I've had from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I question what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My thoughts on my own device? Right now, frustrating. It's reporting I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the trees along my route are disrupting my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us attach these small gadgets onto our arms and use them constantly, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Gone are the days when we used them only to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Now, they can track our nightly rest, stress levels, glucose levels, our body battery.

It's tricky to find a health indicator they don't track.

But can they do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we obsess over a true reflection of the truth? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I become a a little preoccupied with mine," one user admits.

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

Before she realised she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be energetic enough. Now, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a six-month old, I don't need to be informed I'm tired," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"I could, theoretically, but I've got this complicated dynamic with it," she continues. "I value it for its exercise data, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your vitals and processing your data, but the most use detectors on the underside of the watch.

They commonly project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can detect blood flow, detecting your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to assess your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially aid early diagnosis, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is about to have a cardiac event, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the long term.

But how to interpret these figures is not straightforward. The expert concerns that as more functions are incorporated, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a good idea," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on cardiology echoes this sentiment. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM went up. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety went up again.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we re-check - it becomes a feedback loop."