🔗 Share this article

An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. I can see the chilled vapour exhaled by my rivals as they execute the "pre-race" jiggle on the starting line.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

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

Oh, hang on. I need to sort my device. The same goes for the guy next to me.

The person behind us sighs. I'm not moving until… yes! Signal acquired, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to find a person without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us athletes who use them.

This is a booming, massive sector. Brands like Samsung Galaxy dominate, featuring an extensive array of various devices to fit a variety of lifestyles. Based on how high tech the watch you go for, price tags can vary between £100 to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, I can't relax."

"It provides solace… It's like a supporter supporting me."

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the comments I've had from other smartwatch wearers when I question what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My feelings on my own device? Currently, frustrating. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, making me wonder whether the foliage I'm passing under are blocking my satellite signal.

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

Gone are the days when we depended on them only to give us an estimation of our step count. Today, they can analyse our sleep patterns, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

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

But are they able to do what they claim to do? And are the data points we scrutinise a accurate representation of reality? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of readings and motivational messages just add to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a bit fixated with mine," a wearer confesses.

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

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was not being active enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a young baby, I don't need to be notified I've not slept," she says. "I know that only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own unique way of measuring your health metrics and processing your data, but the most use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can detect blood flow, detecting your heartbeat. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that flows through the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

A Fine Balance

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could actually prevent illness, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the future.

But how to make sense of these figures is not straightforward. The expert worries that as further capabilities are introduced, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I remain sceptical that being able to monitor so many metrics is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in wearable tech agrees. A study into the effect of wearable tech on a set of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced greater stress and were "had a higher tendency to use doctor's time".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they spotted a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM rose. They got more worried. They looked a second time, and their heart rate went up again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We check, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."