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There's a nervous excitement. I can see the cold breath exhaled by my rivals as they execute the "starting line" shuffle on the start line.

A swift movement of the hips.

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

Oh, hang on. I must start my device. The same goes for the person beside me.

The person behind us sighs. I'm not moving until… yes! Connection established, away I go.

During the scramble, it's hard to see a person without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us runners who wear them.

We're witnessing a booming, multi-billion dollar industry. Brands like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, all offering an wide array of various versions to fit a spectrum of budgets. According to how high tech the model you select, costs can vary between a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

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

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

"Stop telling me about a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the responses I've had from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I question what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My current opinion on mine? At this moment, frustrating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the trees along my route are interfering with my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us strap these compact gadgets onto our arms and use them constantly, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Long past are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an estimation of our step count. Now, they can analyse our sleep quality, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's tricky to find a health indicator they aren't designed to measure.

But can they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we scrutinise a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they enhance our overall health, or do the avalanche of readings and constant notifications just add to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

"I become a bit fixated with mine," a wearer admits.

While she loves how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other features "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a significant period.

Prior to discovering she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was not being productive enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I am caring for a infant, it's unnecessary for me to be told I'm tired," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she continues. "I value it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

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

They usually emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can monitor pulsation, detecting your BPM. More advanced devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to gauge your nervous system activity.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially prevent illness, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a heart problem in the future.

But how to make sense of these figures is complex. The expert fears that as more functions are introduced, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

"I remain sceptical that being able to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in patient behaviour agrees. A study into the impact of wearable tech on a set of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they saw a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their pulse went up. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their anxiety rose further.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we lack context for then, understandably, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."