I had once created a redstone block-piston counters using many piston not gates which automatically reset itself. First, you lay out the pistons as per the second photo, and placing the redstone blocks 1 block away from their front. Then, in the next picture, you place solid blocks and redstone on top of the pistons. The next photo is of the reset device itself. Once the redstone dust receives power, it turns off the lower redstone torch, turning on the upper one (The repeater is there to make sure the signal goes all the way around). I power the first piston (the one not affecting the reset device) with a 1 tick pulse 15 times. In previous snapshots, all of the pistons extended when I power the first piston for the 16th time, and because the reset device is then powered off by it's piston extending, all of the pistons retract. Then they all extend as if being powered by a one tick pulse because of the redstone blocks, and go back to being in a state like the original photo.

The reset mechanism is the problem area. Now, when the button is pressed for the sixteenth time, all the pistons extend, however it is not uniform, as in some pistons ire before others, and creates this weird clock.

(The last three photos show a close up of the 1 tick pulser.)