At a time when we’re all blaming digital devices for ruining our attention spans, our children’s mental health and even the future of democracy itself, let’s give credit where it’s due: my cheap fitness watch has changed my life.

Three and a half years ago I started running at my local Parkrun, taking more than half an hour to limp around the 5k course for the first few weeks. After a few months of consistently showing up I made the kind of progress one might expect. But when I bought an entry-level runner’s watch, things really started to change.

Urged on by the watch, I began training several times a week and lengthening the runs to 10k, 10 miles and beyond. My wife got the bug — and her own watch. Our daughter described us as “running mad”. You be the judge: mad or not, I’m running the London Marathon in April next year. As a stubborn non-runner for the first 49 years of my life, there’s no way I’d have signed up for that sort of insanity without the watch.