The problem I have is the AD has a year of warranty and I want to have it polished by the dealer instead of from an independent jeweler. If C24 outright ban the AD, is there any way for them to still honour the warranty?

Absolute beauty. I personally would opt in for a GMT style bezel for better readability/usability. But it is a beauty regardless and every mod is tastefully done.

The calibre 7s26 is a workhorse movement and fairly simple. If you have the time and is pretty handy, you can try to follow this guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHF9xMJ7tmQ to disassemble it and check what’s wrong.

Otherwise, you can bring it to an independent watch repair shop. It would be less expensive than the swiss counterpart.

Is there something similar for iOS?

They probably do it to prevents spam/abuse. It is supposed to be a better WhatsApp after all, not a completely federated software. So it gotta be somewhat user friendly.