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A sense of building tension. I can see the frosty air emanating from my fellow runners as they execute the "about to run" jiggle on the starting line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I need to adjust my device. So does the person next to me.

The person in the line tuts. I won't start until… there! Connection established, and I'm running.

During the scramble, it's hard to find a person without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who rely on them.

It's a thriving, massive market. Names like Garmin are prevalent, featuring an broad range of various devices to fit a range of budgets. Based on how advanced the model you choose, costs can start from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, it's impossible to stop checking."

"It provides solace… It feels like a companion supporting me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the responses I've received from like-minded device users when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My current opinion on my own device? Right now, frustrating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the trees along my route are disrupting my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us fasten these compact devices onto our arms and wear them constantly, apparently comfortable with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an rough count of our step count. Currently, they can analyse our sleep patterns, blood pressure, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

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

But can they do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we obsess over a true reflection of the truth? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and cheerleading alerts just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

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

While she values how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other capabilities "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a pregnancy.

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a six-month old, I don't need to be told I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I love it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the majority use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically emit minute LED lights onto your skin which can detect capillary action, recording your heartbeat. Higher-end devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically save lives, "detecting disease before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how normal the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

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

But how to interpret these readings is complex. The expert worries that as additional features are incorporated, people may not be able to fully understand their data.

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

A clinical psychologist focusing on cardiology echoes this sentiment. A study into the impact of wearable tech on a set of individuals with health issues suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She observed a cycle with her patients - they spotted a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM went up. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their anxiety rose further.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we re-check - it becomes a feedback loop."