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An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. I can see the chilled vapour coming from my competitors as they do the "about to run" jiggle on the start line.

A rapid movement of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local 5km community parkrun and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Hold on. I have to sort my watch. So does the person next to me.

The person waiting expresses impatience. I'm not moving until… yes! Signal acquired, away I go.

Amidst the crowd, it's challenging to see a wrist without a fitness tracker on it. And this isn't only us athletes who wear them.

We're witnessing a thriving, multi-billion dollar sector. Names like Samsung Galaxy dominate, all offering an broad array of various devices to cater to a variety of budgets. Depending on how feature-packed the device you go for, price tags can range from £100 to a small fortune.

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

"It comforts me… It acts as a companion supporting me."

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

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

The Monitoring Conundrum

My thoughts on mine? Currently, frustrating. It's telling me my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm running below are blocking my GPS connection.

Countless individuals of us fasten these compact devices onto our arms and use them constantly, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're continuously tracking us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Today, they can measure our sleep patterns, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

It's a challenge to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.

But can they do what they claim to do? And are the numbers we obsess over a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of metrics and motivational messages just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she values how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other features "daunting" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be productive enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I have a young baby, there's no point to be told I've not slept," she says. "That fact is perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"I could, I suppose, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I love it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your health metrics and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use optical sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can monitor pulsation, identifying your heartbeat. Higher-end devices detect changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically save lives, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which regularly monitor how normal the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the long term.

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

"I have some doubts that being able to monitor so much data is such a good idea," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. A study into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate increased. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their reading rose further.

"If we see data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a vicious cycle."