🔗 Share this article

An atmosphere of building tension. I can see the cold breath exhaled by my fellow runners as they perform the "starting line" wiggle on the beginning point.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. It's almost time...

Hold on. I have to sort my watch. As does the runner beside me.

The person waiting sighs. I won't start until… yes! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

In the mele, it's challenging to spot a wrist without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who rely on them.

We're witnessing a thriving, multi-billion pound sector. Names like Apple Watch are prevalent, each with an extensive array of different models to cater to a variety of budgets. Based on how feature-packed the model you go for, price tags can start from a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, I'm unable to switch off."

"It provides solace… It's like a companion encouraging me."

"Stop telling me I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the comments I've had from fellow device users when I question what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? Right now, irritating. It's indicating my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the foliage I'm passing under are disrupting my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us strap these small devices onto our arms and wear them all day and night, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're perpetually recording us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an idea of our step count. Currently, they can analyse our nightly rest, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

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

But do they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we obsess over a faithful picture of our actual health? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the multitude of measurements and cheerleading alerts just increase our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

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

While she appreciates how her device tracks her exercise, she finds some of its other features "excessive" at times - a feeling initially realised during a significant period.

Before she realised she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was failing to be productive enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I have a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be told I'm tired," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I value it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Every device of smartwatch has its own unique way of measuring your vitals and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use optical sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can detect capillary action, identifying your heartbeat. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to gauge your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the continuously improving tech could potentially aid early diagnosis, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which regularly monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic impulses 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 advance notice they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to understand these readings is complicated. The expert worries that as more functions are added, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so much data is such a good idea," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in cardiology concurs. Research 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 condition experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She noted a cycle with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They felt anxious. Their heart rate went up. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their heart rate rose further.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we check again - it becomes a feedback loop."