It tells you for how long the time displayed by the watch is valid. If a watch loses ten seconds per day, in a month it will be about five minutes off.
The objective is to minimize this number as much as possible. The open source sensor watch has a temperature sensor and software which turns it into a temperature compensated quartz watch. Mine loses time every year instead of every day or every month.
Practically speaking, unless you only own a single mechanical watch you really only care about the per day loss.
You know what they say. Man with one clock, always knows what time it is.
Man with two clocks, never quite sure...