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An atmosphere of building tension. I can see the frosty air coming from my competitors as they do the "starting line" shuffle on the start line.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I need to adjust my tracker. So does the runner beside me.

The person waiting tuts. I refuse to go until… done! Connection established, away I go.

In the mele, it's difficult to find a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who wear them.

We're witnessing a booming, multi-billion dollar industry. Brands like Apple Watch dominate, each with an broad selection of various versions to cater to a variety of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the model you go for, costs can range from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

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

"It reassures me… It feels like a friend guiding me."

"Stop telling me about a restless night."

A small sample of the reactions I've had from other smartwatch wearers when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on my own device? At this moment, annoying. It's reporting I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the foliage along my route are interfering with my GPS connection.

Countless individuals of us fasten these compact gadgets onto our wrists and wear them 24/7, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're continuously recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an rough count of our daily steps. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.

But can they do what they advertise? And are the statistics we obsess over a true reflection of the truth? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of metrics and motivational messages just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she appreciates how her device monitors her workouts, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was not being active enough. Now, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I am caring for a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be informed I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"It's possible, perhaps, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I love it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your health metrics and interpreting your data, but the majority use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually emit minute LED lights onto your skin which can observe blood flow, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to assess your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically prevent illness, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can perform tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a blood clot in the long term.

But how to interpret these figures is complex. The expert worries that as more functions are introduced, people may not be able to fully comprehend their data.

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

A clinical psychologist specialising in cardiology echoes this sentiment. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they spotted a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their heart rate rose further.

"If we see numbers about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we obsess - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."