Watchman for Riders on iOS: A Hijacked Launch and the Road Back from identity theft hell

A tale of building tech against motorcycle theft, only to have the iOS launch hijacked by identity theft.

Many of you know, I’ve been building Watchman for a while now.

It started the way most organic projects start. A problem that nags at you. A few sketches. A prototype. Then that familiar moment where you think, “Right. I’m actually doing this.”

Android was the first proper runway. In November, I put the app into beta. In December, I published.

That was a big step. Not because it was perfect. Because it was real. People could install it. People could take it on real rides. People could tell me, very quickly, what was good and what was rubbish.

And if you’ve ever built something for bikers, you know the truth. Your first real test is not the lab. It’s a wet Tuesday. Cold fingers. Gloves on. Phone mount vibrating. And someone trying to do the right thing without faffing.

While Android was getting that real-world seasoning, iOS was sat there on the list. Always next. Always “soon”.

At first the delay was simple. I didn’t have a Mac.

You can do a surprising amount without one. You can write logic. You can shape the screens. You can build the core.

But iOS is a walled garden. And the gate key is Apple’s tooling. Which, in practice, means Apple hardware.

So I did what I could. I got my company registered as a developer with Google. Then, after I had the hardware, I went to do the Apple side.

That’s when the ride took a turn.

Shock horror. Someone had already registered my company with Apple. Using my details.

Not “someone made a mistake”. Not “maybe I clicked the wrong thing”.

Identity theft. Properly. With a fake website for my company and all my details on it.

There’s a particular kind of anger that comes with that. Not dramatic. Not cinematic. Just a steady, grinding disbelief. Because you are trying to build a product. And suddenly you are proving you exist and you are you.

What followed was a couple of months of admin warfare. Support tickets. Evidence. Verification. More verification. Back and forth. Chasing. Waiting. Explaining the same story again.

It was slow. It was stressful. And it stole time in the most irritating way.

But here’s the thing. I didn’t stop building.

I wasn’t going to let a paperwork fight stall the product. So I kept working on iOS using the simulator. I built features. I tightened the flow. I cleaned up the rough edges. I kept pushing the app towards the same shape as Android.

So when the account finally got fixed and control came back to me, I wasn’t starting over. I was ready.

And now, finally two days later, Watchman is on TestFlight.

App is very much usable and very close to feature parity with Android. That matters. It means iPhone riders can get involved properly. It means feedback comes from both platforms. And it means the next work is the work that counts. Making it tougher. Smoother. More reliable.

Because parity is not the finish line. It’s the baseline.

Since the launch in addition to the robust firmware and App improvements, we also have battery voltage and riding stats, bug reports and feature request in App. 

This build has been a mix of tech, stubbornness, and the usual rider mindset. See a problem. Fix it. Keep going.

Pro-Tip: If you want to develop apps, don't be me, register your developer accounts on all platforms as soon as possible.

If you’re on iOS and you want to take a proper Scottish tech for a ride use code IOS40 to get 40% discount on BikeSafe Watchman for a limited time only.