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An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. I can see the chilled vapour emanating from my fellow runners as they do the "pre-race" shuffle on the starting line.

A swift twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I'm focused. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I have to adjust my tracker. The same goes for the person beside me.

The person waiting expresses impatience. I won't start until… there! GPS ready, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's difficult to spot a person without a fitness tracker on it. And this extends beyond us participants who rely on them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion pound sector. Brands like Garmin lead the market, featuring an wide array of different models to cater to a range of budgets. Depending on how high tech the device you select, costs can start from £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It drives me insane, I can't relax."

"It provides solace… It feels like a supporter guiding me."

"Please don't notify me about a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the reactions I've received from like-minded tracker enthusiasts when I question what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the overhead branches along my route are interfering with my satellite signal.

A vast number of us fasten these compact gadgets onto our wrists and use them constantly, ostensibly unconcerned with the fact they're continuously recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an estimation of our pedometer reading. Currently, they can analyse our nightly rest, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our VO2 max.

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

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the statistics we obsess over a true reflection of our actual health? Do they boost our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of metrics and motivational messages just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a quite fixated with mine," a wearer admits.

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

Prior to discovering she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be productive enough. Now, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a infant, it's unnecessary for me to be notified my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"It's possible, theoretically, but I'm in this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

How Do They Work?

Different brands of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your vitals and processing your data, but the majority use optical sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically emit small, green LED lights onto your skin which can monitor capillary action, detecting your heartbeat. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially aid early diagnosis, "spotting abnormalities before we notice anything", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic signals 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 susceptible of a stroke in the years to come.

But how to understand these numbers is complicated. The expert fears that as further capabilities are added, people may struggle to fully understand their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that the ability to monitor so many things is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of individuals with health issues suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined to use doctor's time".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their pulse increased. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their heart rate increased again.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."