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A sense of building tension. Apparent is the cold breath exhaled by my competitors as they execute the "pre-race" jiggle on the starting line.

A quick flick of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I'm serious. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I have to sort my tracker. As does the runner beside me.

The person behind us sighs. I won't start until… yes! Connection established, and I'm running.

During the scramble, it's hard to see a person without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us runners who rely on them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion pound sector. Brands like Apple Watch lead the market, each with an wide range of different versions to cater to a range of needs. According to how high tech the model you select, costs can start from a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

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

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

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

Just some of the comments I've had from fellow device users when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's telling me my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the trees along my route are disrupting my satellite signal.

Millions of us fasten these little devices onto our wrists and wear them all day and night, ostensibly unconcerned with the fact they're perpetually monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an rough count of our pedometer reading. Now, they can analyse our nightly rest, blood pressure, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

It's difficult to find a bodily function they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we analyse a true reflection of reality? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the multitude of readings and cheerleading alerts just increase our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I become a a little obsessed with mine," a wearer admits.

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

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I have a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be notified I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I could, perhaps, but I'm in this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I value it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your health metrics and analysing your data, but the majority use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They usually emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can observe blood flow, recording your pulse rate. Higher-end devices measure changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially save lives, "detecting disease before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to make sense of these figures is not straightforward. The expert fears that as further capabilities are introduced, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

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

A clinical psychologist specialising in patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a set of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She noted a cycle with her patients - they saw a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate increased. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their reading went up again.

"If we see numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, understandably, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a feedback loop."