Abstract The motion of vacuum arc spots on nanocrystalline and coarse-grained CuCr25 alloys were observed by a digital high speed video camera and SEM. Experimental results show that without an external magnetic field a spot can move a long distance in a direction and leave a long straight arc trace (50–100 μm) on the surface of nanocrystalline CuCr25 cathode. This kind of spot motion can be defined as sub-directional motion. The spot motion is totally random and restricted on coarse Cr particles for coarse-grained CuCr25 cathode. Arc spots move sub-directionally and more easily on nanocrystalline cathode maybe results from an active surface formed by the special electronic structure due to Cu–Cr internal electric field.