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A sense of nervous excitement. Apparent is the frosty air coming from my rivals as they do the "about to run" jiggle on the beginning point.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Oh, hang on. I need to adjust my watch. As does the guy beside me.

The person in the line expresses impatience. I refuse to go until… there! GPS ready, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's hard to see a arm without a fitness tracker on it. And this isn't only us runners who use them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Brands like Garmin are prevalent, featuring an wide range of various models to suit a spectrum of lifestyles. Based on how feature-packed the watch you choose, prices can vary between an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, I can't relax."

"It reassures me… It's like a friend guiding me."

"Stop telling me I've had a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the responses I've had from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on mine? Currently, annoying. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, making me wonder whether the trees I'm passing under are blocking my location tracking.

Millions of us attach these little monitors onto our wrists and keep them on all day and night, seemingly unconcerned with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an estimation of our step count. Today, they can analyse our sleep quality, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they don't track.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the data points we obsess over a true reflection of our actual health? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of readings and cheerleading alerts just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a a little obsessed with mine," one user reveals.

While she appreciates how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.

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 frequently reports her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a infant, there's no point to be notified I'm tired," she says. "I know that only too well."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I could, I suppose, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I love it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your vitals and interpreting your data, but the most use optical sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can monitor blood flow, detecting your heartbeat. Higher-end devices measure changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to assess your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

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

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

But how to understand these readings is complicated. The expert concerns that as additional features are added, people may find it hard to fully understand their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that being able to monitor so many metrics is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on patient behaviour 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 cardiac function experienced greater stress and were "had a higher tendency to use healthcare resources".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse rose. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their heart rate rose further.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we re-check - it becomes a feedback loop."