The Hurun “Best of the Best” 2010 Awards for preferred brands of China’s  richest consumers were announced yesterday by Hurun Report.

The luxury business magazine is renowned for its annual “China Rich List”

In its sixth edition Hurun surveyed 383 mainland millionaires, each with assets of at least RMB 10 million ($1.5 million).

Among them 66 people have assets of at least RMB 100 million (USD 15 million).

Jewelry and Watches – Cartier is number one for the fifth year running, yet again distancing itself from its rivals.

Patek Philippe is the leading luxury watch brand for the second time followed at a growing distance by Vacheron Constantin, Cartier and Rolex. Patek Philippe also won the high complications category.

Fashion – Giorgio Armani wins the best fashion brand for the sixth year in a row followed by Boss and Versace.

Apart from Giorgio Armani only a handful of other brands have won the Hurun Best of the Best of Awards for six years running, namely Bentley, Shangri-la, China Merchants Bank, HSBC and Nokia.

Boss features strongly in the fashion sector due to a strong response from Tier 2/3 Chinese millionaires.

Accessories – Armani and Hermes are leaders in this category.

Cosmetics – Chanel leads the Best Skincare category followed by Dior.

Cars
The Bentley Continental Flying Spur wins the Best Super Luxury Car for Self-Drive category and the Rolls Royce Phantom for Business.

Mercedes-Benz S Class and Audi A8 are leaders in the Best Luxury Sedan category. For luxury SUV’s the Audi Q7 has overtaken the BMW 5 Series to lead the category.

Audi A6 is the clear winner in the Best Executive Car category and Porsche 911 wins the Best Super Luxury Performance Car category for a second year running.

Yachts and Private Jets
There is a low understanding of yachts with less than half even having an opinion on the category.

Brand recognition is very poor so there is not a lot between the big four brands: Princess, Sunseeker, Ferretti and Azimut. However over 50% said they were looking to buy a yacht in the future.

Private jets also have low brand recognition and less than 1/5 of Chinese millionaires had an opinion on this category. 15% are planning to buy a jet in the future.

Drinks
Louis XIII is the king of imported spirits and also won the Best Ultra Luxury Cognac category ahead of Richard Hennessy. Moutai dominates the Chinese spirits market.

Art Auctions
Christies and Sotheby’s have both slipped from the top for the first time, and are now led by local brands China Guardian and Beijing Poly.

Private Clubs
Chang’An is the Best Private Club in China, however there is a strong tendency for regional private clubs to make impact.

Mission Hills Golf Club is still the number one golf club and Shanghai Sheshan Golf Club has won top spot for Best Shanghai Golf Club for the first time taking over from Tomson Golf.

Hotels
Shangri-La is top of the luxury hotel brands for the sixth year running. In China the Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt are considered to be two separate brands, so these results count them as two brands, if they were combined then Hyatt would beat the Shangri-La as the best luxury hotel brand. Hilton is also shooting up the ranks.

Spa
Banyan Tree is still top of the Best Spa brand category.

Air Travel
Air China wins the best First Class/ Business Class award.

Technology
Vertu is by far the Best Luxury Mobile brand and is in a class of its own. Nokia dominates the Best Mobile Phone category while Apple leads the Best Laptop segment.

China has 825,000 individuals with personal wealth of more than 10 million yuan (GBP 1 million or USD 1.46 million) and 51,000 individuals with more than 100 million yuan, according to the Hurun 2009 Wealth Report.

Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai are home to the lion’s share of the rich, accounting for 48% of millionaires in Mainland China.

Beijing tops the list with 143,000 individuals with more than 10 million yuan and 8,800 individuals with more than 100 million yuan.