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A sense of nervous excitement. I can see the frosty air exhaled by my competitors as they do the "about to run" jiggle on the start line.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. It's almost time...

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

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

During the scramble, it's hard to spot a arm without a smartwatch on it. And it's not just us runners who wear them.

We're witnessing a booming, massive industry. Companies like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, featuring an broad range of diverse versions to suit a range of needs. Based on how high tech the model you select, price tags can vary between a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

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

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

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

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

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Currently, annoying. It's reporting my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the trees I'm passing under are disrupting my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us attach these little gadgets onto our wrists and wear them all day and night, ostensibly unconcerned with the fact they're constantly recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them exclusively to give us an idea of our daily steps. Now, they can track our sleep patterns, blood pressure, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

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

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the numbers we scrutinise a true reflection of reality? Do they boost our overall health, or do the plethora of measurements and cheerleading alerts just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I do get a quite fixated with mine," one user reveals.

While she values how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.

Prior to discovering she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently productive enough. In a new phase, the watch insists her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be told I've not slept," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Is it not possible to just stop wearing it?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she continues. "I love it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your vitals and interpreting your data, but the majority use optical sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically project minute LED lights onto your wrist which can detect pulsation, recording your BPM. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to gauge your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is irregular impulses in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the long term.

But how to interpret these numbers is complicated. The expert fears that as additional features are incorporated, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

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

A health researcher specialising in cardiology 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 heart health experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use doctor's time".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they spotted a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their pulse went up. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their heart rate increased again.

"If we see data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We check, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."