🔗 Share this article

A sense of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the frosty air exhaled by my rivals as they execute the "pre-race" jiggle on the start line.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I'm serious. Three, two, one...

Oh, hang on. I must sort my watch. The same goes for the person next to me.

The person in the line tuts. I'm not moving until… there! GPS ready, I'm off.

In the mele, it's difficult to spot a person without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us runners who wear them.

It's a booming, massive industry. Brands like Apple Watch are prevalent, each with an extensive array of diverse versions to suit a variety of budgets. Based on how feature-packed the device you select, prices can range from a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

"I find it infuriating, I can't stop checking."

"It comforts me… It acts as a supporter encouraging me."

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

A small sample of the responses people have shared from other smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My feelings on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, making me wonder whether the trees along my route are disrupting my GPS connection.

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

Gone are the days when we depended on them exclusively to give us an estimation of our pedometer reading. Today, they can analyse our sleep quality, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

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

But can they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we scrutinise a true reflection of reality? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of measurements and constant notifications just add to our daily stresses?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she values how her device monitors her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling initially realised during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I have a young baby, I don't need to be told I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware only too well."

Couldn't she just remove it?

"I suppose I could, perhaps, but I'm in this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I value it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps too much for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your vitals and analysing your data, but the majority use sensors on the back of the watch.

They usually project small, green LED lights onto your wrist which can detect capillary action, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

A data scientist says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically save lives, "detecting disease before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is erratic signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the long term.

But how to interpret these readings is complex. The expert worries that as additional features are incorporated, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a good idea," he says.

A professor studying patient behaviour concurs. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their anxiety increased again.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, understandably, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We check, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."