We ended up using the following without throttle-period. It is working as intended 
PUT _xpack/watcher/watch/my-watch
{
"trigger": {
"schedule": {
"interval": "20s"
}
},
"input": {
"search": {
"request": {
"indices": [
"test-*"
],
"body": {
"query": {
"bool": {
"must": {
"match": {
"level": "Error"
}
},
"filter": {
"range": {
"@timestamp": {
"from": "{{ctx.trigger.scheduled_time}}||-25s",
"to": "{{ctx.trigger.triggered_time}}"
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
},
"condition": {
"compare": {
"ctx.payload.hits.total": {
"gt": 0
}
}
},
"actions": {
"send_email": {
"email": {
"to": "test@test.com",
"subject": "Watcher Notification",
"body": "{{ctx.payload}}",
"priority": "highest"
}
}
}
}